FBI Director Kash Patel and country music performer Alexis Wilkins are engaged.
Wilkins, 27, announced the relationship milestone on social media Sunday night, posting a photo of herself beside Patel while displaying a prominent diamond ring.
“Went and got the law involved,” she quipped in the caption.
Patel reposted the announcement, adding heart and diamond-ring emojis.
Alina Habba, former attorney to President Donald Trump, joined the congratulations online. “This makes my heart smile. Big congratulations to my friends [Alexis Wilkins] and [Kash Patel],” she wrote.
Laura Loomer and other figures associated with Trump’s political circle also celebrated the couple’s engagement.
Patel reportedly met Wilkins at a conservative ReAwaken America gathering in October 2022, according to an insider previously quoted by Our News Outlet. Their relationship began several months later, in January 2023.
Their romance has also drawn public attention over Patel’s use of government resources while attending events involving the country singer and arranging security for her.
Last year, Patel traveled on an FBI jet to Pennsylvania to watch Wilkins perform the national anthem at a wrestling event. The trip prompted criticism on social media, with some accusing the FBI director of misusing government resources during a shutdown.
Alexis Wilkins announced her engagement to FBI Director Kash Patel with this social media photo Sunday night
Wilkins stood beside Patel when he was sworn in as FBI director
Former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin mocked the trip in a social media post, referring to Patel as “KA$H.”
“Dear FBI Employees: I’m sorry the government ISN’T funded, so you won’t be getting a paycheck,” Seraphin wrote. “Luckily, that doesn’t stop Real American Freestyle WRESTLING! So I flew the FBI jet to State College PA, hung out with my chick, and then flew to Nashville where she lives.”
Patel defended the decision, dismissing his detractors as “uninformed internet anarchists.”
“The disgustingly baseless attacks against Alexis — a true patriot and the woman I’m proud to call my partner in life — are beyond pathetic,” he said at the time.
“She is a rock-solid conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes. I’m so blessed she’s in my life.”
He continued: “Attacking her isn’t just wrong — it’s cowardly and jeopardizes our safety. My love of family will always be my cornerstone, and you will never tear that down or keep me from them.”
Patel’s spokesperson, Ben Williamson, also defended him, saying his trips pale in comparison to the money spent by former FBI chiefs James Comey and Christopher Wray. He also claimed Patel pays a reimbursement in advance.
“He’s allowed to take personal time on occasion to see family, friends or his longtime girlfriend. He doesn’t do it often,” Williamson said.
Patel, pictured right, has faced accusations of abusing his authority after assigning a SWAT team to protect Wilkins, pictured left
Patel first met Wilkins at a conservative ReAwaken America event in October 2022
Yet Patel faced renewed scrutiny just a few months later when it was revealed he used a SWAT team to protect Wilkins.
MS NOW reported that Wilkins received the protection of ‘elite FBI agents’ who typically work with the Nashville office’s SWAT team.
Some veterans of the agency complained that typically, girlfriends and spouses of officials do not get that level of protection.
Helen Wray, the wife of ex-FBI Director Christopher Wray, had said she only received a security detail when she was traveling with her husband.
Others argued that Wilkins does not face the threats necessary for that amount of attention, and that the agents assigned to protecting the singer could be kept from responding to more serious potential crimes.
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‘There is no legitimate justification for this. This is a clear abuse of position and misuse of government resources,’ former senior FBI agent Christopher O’Leary told MS Now.
‘She is not his spouse, does not live in the same house or even the same city.’
O’Leary also complained that Wilkins was gaining security when people who were being threatened by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, like recently indicted former White House advisor John Bolton, were losing their details.
Patel has also used an FBI helicopter to watch Wilkins perform amid a government shutdown
But the FBI once again defended the move, claiming Wilkins had faced a slew of death threats since their relationship was made public.
‘Ms. Wilkins is receiving a protective detail because she has faced hundreds of credible death threats related to her relationship with Director Patel, whom she has been dating for three years,’ a spokesperson told Our News Outlet.
‘Out of respect for her safety, we will not be providing additional details.’
Wilkins, though, decided to go public with some of the abuse she’s taken from certain corners of the internet.
‘A morning in my DMs.’ she posted on social media as she shared comments including that ‘you should pray to christ and end your life! You’re better off in his hands than on this earth’ and ‘you need to touch a bullet.’
‘Someone needs to kidnap her,’ a third Instagram user added.
Patel and Wilkins are pictured arriving at the White House ahead of the UFC Freedom 250
Wilkins (pictured with Patel and Donald Trump in February) has gone public with some of the abuse she’s taken from certain corners of the internet
The hate-filled messages came after Wilkins sued two right-wing commentators for allegedly claiming she is a Mossad agent.
Wilkins launched the legal action against failed Utah candidate for the US Senate, Samuel Parker, and MAGA social media provocateur Elijah Schaffer.
She accuses the pair of the ‘insidious assertion’ that she has connections to Israel‘s government and is acting as a ‘honeypot’ – an agent who uses a romantic or sexual relationship to compromise a target.
The Nashville-based Wilkins ‘is a Christian, American-born, United States citizen, and is unaffiliated with any intelligence agency, much less the government of Israel,’ the singer’s lawyers wrote in her federal complaint.
Wilkins has never been to Israel, her lawyers attested.
Parker, who had a failed bid in 2018, has since grown a social media following by stoking controversy on the right, including his attacks on Wilkins.
Patel has fiercely defended his use of government resources to protect Wilkins
The country music singer has also previously sued podcaster and former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin for allegedly lying about her being ‘an agent of a foreign government, assigned to manipulate and compromise the Director of the FBI.’
The former agent later alleged the lawsuit was an effort to silence his criticism of the FBI director and his girlfriend.
Wilkins has been regularly accused of being a ‘honeypot,’ a spy who uses romantic tactics or sexual relationships to influence actions or compromise targets with access to intelligence.
Their 19-year age gap fueled the tin foil hat conspiracy which she fiercely denied.
She told Our News Outlet in August it would have been a ‘huge long-game’ since she was dating Patel for years before he became FBI director.
Wilkins said that the redirection of attacks has been so harmful she’s had to censor out the word ‘honeypot’ from her social media comments.
‘I’ve blocked the word “honeypot” from my Instagram comments, if that tells you anything,’ Wilkins told Our News Outlet.
