FBI Director Kash Patel is facing criticism over his reported use of a government-owned jet to travel to Pennsylvania State University last weekend, allegedly to watch his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, perform at a wrestling event, according to The Independent.
Patel, 45, appeared alongside Wilkins, 26, at the Real American Freestyle event at Penn State on Oct. 25. Photos of the couple at the event were later shared on Wilkins’ X account, sparking online speculation about how the FBI director traveled there.
Podcaster Kyle Seraphin was the first to call out Kash Patel and Alexis Wilkins.
Podcaster Kyle Seraphin was among the first to question Patel’s actions.
“We’re in the middle of a government shutdown where they’re not even gonna pay all of the employees that work for the agency that this guy heads,” Seraphin said on the Oct. 28 episode of The Kyle Seraphin Show. “And this guy is jetting off to hang out with his girlfriend in Nashville on our dime?”
Seraphin went on to accuse the couple of “grifting off the American public.”
“He flew a $60 million aircraft to go hang out there. Is that gross to anybody else?” he added.
Public data shows that Jet N708JH, the flight Patel allegedly traveled on, according to The Daily Beast, is registered to the United States Government. The jet made a roughly 40-minute trip from Manassas Regional Airport in Virginia to State College Regional Airport in Pennsylvania on Oct. 25. About two and a half hours later, the aircraft departed for Nashville, Tennessee, where Wilkins resides.
According to flight logs obtained by the outlet, the plane landed in State College, Pennsylvania, at 5:40 p.m. EST, took off at 8:03 p.m. EST, and arrived in Nashville, where Wilkins lives, at 8:28 p.m. CDT. The following morning, it reportedly left Nashville for San Angelo, Texas, for reasons that remain unclear.
As FBI director, Patel is required to use government aircraft to maintain safety and access to secure communications, but his use of the jet in recent months has raised eyebrows, as this reportedly wasn’t the first time he’s used a federal aircraft to see Wilkins.
In April 2025, just two months after assuming his role, Patel allegedly made several trips to Nashville to visit Wilkins and was also seen accompanying her to hockey games, The Daily Beast reported. Patel has defended his use of the jet in the past, arguing that “Congress made it mandatory” for him to use the government plane for any travel, The Independent noted.
Kyle Seraphin was sued by Alexis Wilkins in August for defamation.
This is not the first time Seraphin has publicly targeted the couple, either. According to CNBC News, Wilkins filed a lawsuit against Seraphin in August for $5 million in defamation damages after he claimed she was a “former Mossad agent” sent to compromise Patel.
On an Aug. 22 episode of his show, Seraphin remarked that Kash Patel “has had his own little ‘honeypot’ issue that’s been going on of late, so we’re just going to acknowledge it real publicly.”
He continued, “He’s got a girlfriend that is half his age, who is apparently is both a country music singer, a political commentator on Rumble, a friend of John Rich through [FBI Deputy Director Dan] Bongino, who also now owns a big chunk of Rumble, and she’s also a former Mossad agent in what is like the equivalent of their NSA.”
Wilkins’ lawsuit, filed in federal court in Austin, Texas, accuses Seraphin of defamation, stating that the conservative podcaster had “maliciously lied” about her. According to the complaint cited by NBC News, Seraphin “falsely” asserted that Wilkins was “an agent of a foreign government, assigned to manipulate and compromise the Director of the FBI.”
Alexis Wilkins’ attorney wrote that Seraphin used the fabricated story as “self-enriching clickbait.” Wilkins is seeking at least $5 million in damages.
The GAO found that DOJ executives spent a total of $11.4 million on non-mission flights between 2007 and 2011.
Notably, studies have been conducted on the flight habits of government officials in the past. In 2013, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was tasked with reviewing non-mission-related travel by Department of Justice (DOJ) executives. The GAO examined data from fiscal years 2007 through 2011 to determine which DOJ executives used department aircraft for non-mission travel, as well as the frequency, purpose, and cost of such trips.
During those five years, three officials who served as Attorney General (AG) or Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) accounted for 95 percent (659 out of 697) of all DOJ executive non-mission flights, at a total cost of $11.4 million. Of those flights, approximately 74 percent (490 out of 659) were taken for official business purposes—such as conferences, meetings, and field office visits—while 24 percent (158 flights) were for personal reasons, and the remaining 2 percent (11 flights) combined both business and personal travel.
GAO noted at the time that while the Attorney General has long been obligated to use government aircraft for every type of travel, the FBI Director—until 2011—had the discretion to use commercial air service for personal trips.
