Kudos to The New York Times for not being intimidated by Kash Patel’s harassment of its own reporter and others over unflattering stories. On Friday, The Times published a deep dive into what it blandly described as Patel’s “Ethical Issues.” The rest of us would probably call it grift and corruption from the guy Donald Trump thinks is suitable to be our country’s top law enforcement officer.
Still, The Times article is a scorcher. Among other damning details is Patel’s expensive night out with his country-singer girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, at a George Strait concert last year. The couple flew there on an FBI jet and enjoyed the concert in a suite that cost somewhere between $35,000-$50,000, according to The Times. “Through an F.B.I. spokesman, Mr. Patel declined to respond to questions about who financed the outing for himself and Ms. Wilkins. The spokesman, Ben Williamson, added that Ms. Wilkins was ‘an invited guest’ of the performers, whose representatives did not respond to multiple inquiries seeking confirmation.”
While he was at it, Patel and his GF took a bit more out of taxpayer money. “The flight crew and detail waited for the couple, collecting overtime pay, until after 11 p.m., when they were flown on the jet back to Manassas, Va.” The Times also noted.
Wilkins seems just as enthusiastic about using taxpayer funds for her personal benefit. As Ed Scarce has previously reported, she “somehow has a crack [FBI] security team protecting her at all times,” despite the fact she is not in government and does not live with Patel. This is not just “a clear abuse of position and misuse of government resources,” as a former senior FBI agent described it. But it also delays or prevents those elite agents from responding to crises that really need their attention.
The Times estimated that Wilkins' security detail costs taxpayers about $1 million a year. Just to show you how little Patel cares about his stewardship of other peoples’ money, The Times also reported, “F.B.I. officials recommended that Mr. Patel seek a legal review and a threat assessment to determine whether such a level of security for a girlfriend in another city was ethical and necessary. Mr. Patel berated one of them, saying his authority was all that was needed, according to three people briefed on the incident.”
If Congressional Republicans had any backbone or ethics of their own, they would have already marched to the White House and demanded Patel and his personalized bourbon stash GTFO.
