Kash Patel Taps Conservative Influencer and Charlie Kirk Collaborator To Run FBI’s Attack-Dog X Account

Kash Patel has enlisted the help of conservative social media influencer and Charlie Kirk ally Graham Allen to oversee a social media account that regularly trumpets the agency’s recent successes and attacks the press over unfavorable coverage, The New York Sun has learned.The selection of Mr. Allen as a senior adviser for the agency’s Rapid Response unit comes as the 45-year-old FBI director faces mounting scrutiny over a heavy social media presence that some say is self-promotional and compromises criminal investigations. Mr. Allen, whose social media following includes more than 3 million followers on Facebook and more than 1 million on Instagram, is currently listed as a “Senior Advisor” within the Director’s Rapid Response Unit, according to an FBI directory listing seen by the Sun. In recent weeks, critics have accused Mr. Patel of secretly running the @FBI_Response account, whose posts he then retweets and responds to on his @FBIDirectorKash account to amplify his accomplishments as FBI director.On Friday, former Blaze reporter Steve Baker suggested that Mr. Patel’s longtime personal publicist, Erika Knight, and his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, may be running what Mr. Baker called the “Vapid Response” account, which he said “often jumps in to defend thin-skinned @FBIDirectorKash from all manner of criticisms.”In a text to the Sun, Ms. Knight confirmed that she has access to the Rapid Response account as a member of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs but denied authorship of the posts themselves. “I’m not that spicy,” Ms. Knight said. A separate FBI official denied that Ms. Wilkins ran the account, adding “that accusation is baseless [and] untrue.” “The rapid response account exists to give the American people even more access to the most transparent FBI in history — as well as respond to media consistently attempting to undermine the mission through false and bad faith reporting,” an FBI spokesman told the Sun in a statement.A separate FBI source told the Sun that Mr. Allen was hired “recently” and that “Patel just delegated the account to him.”Neither Ms. Knight nor FBI spokesman Ben Williamson responded to questions regarding Mr. Allen’s appointment.Mr. Patel has used social media, X in particular, to boast about his agency’s recent successes and excoriate the press for their unflattering coverage.On his personal X account earlier Friday, Mr. Patel responded to a recent MSNOW article, titled “Kash Patel can’t count on Trump’s protection forever,” in which the director is photoshopped standing next to a BMW, private jet, and a jet ski. “Nah, my jet ski is gold plated … dumbass,” Mr. Patel wrote.But Mr. Patel has long been scrutinized for his hasty use of, and “insatiable thirst” for, social media. On several occasions, he has prematurely revealed inaccurate or privileged information about ongoing criminal investigations.In June, he posted details about a thwarted terror plot involving the use of drones to target a June 14 UFC fight card staged on the South Lawn of the White House at Washington. In doing so, he ran afoul of the Secret Service deputy director, Matthew Quinn, who at the time said the secret service was working with the FBI, and that both were still seeking at least 10 people for questioning. “It’s an active plot, and it’s ongoing,” Mr. Quinn added. The case was still sealed in court.The Justice Department announced Friday that eight men have been indicted for allegedly planning to use drones armed with explosives and firearms in a mass casualty attack that included plans to murder President Trump, Vice President Vance, and businessman Elon Musk. In October, Mr. Patel hastily announced on X that the FBI had “thwarted a potential terrorist attack” by arresting several alleged terrorists in Michigan — despite no criminal charges having been filed at the time. Local law enforcement, whom he thanked for “crushing our mission,” had reportedly been left in the dark about the investigation and “called each other to find out what was going on,” the Wall Street Journal reported.The Justice Department told the White House that Mr. Patel’s premature announcement “disrupted the investigation” — echoing concerns raised by Mr. Patel’s rushed decision to publicize the arrest of a suspect in the murder of Charlie Kirk in September. That suspect was released a short time later and another man, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, turned himself in to local authorities the following day. Mr. Allen is the founder of Dear America Media and the host of the Graham Allen Show, and was most recently spotted inside the Provo, Utah, courtroom where a pretrial hearing for Mr. Robinson was underway. Mr. Allen, who has been reporting on the hearing on his social media accounts and podcast, was attending as a guest of Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk. In September, he filled in as a guest host on Kirk’s show, Charlie Kirk Today.Mr. Allen did not respond to questions sent to his FBI and personal emails or to a voicemail left on a work number under his name. Mr. Allen, an Army National Guard veteran and staff sergeant who was deployed twice to Iraq during his military service, most recently served as digital media director for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said his role was to “further strengthen our ability to communicate effectively.” He stepped down in May 2025 after working there for three months. “The fake news has absolutely hated our rapid response operation and basically everything else that’s led to the largest reaching digital accounts ever within the department, which means I did my job,” Mr. Allen wrote in a post on X, adding that he was moving to a consultant role. Last year, Mr. Allen posted a photo of himself and his wife posing alongside the then-deputy director, Dan Bongino, from inside FBI headquarters while commenting that it was “amazing catching up with the GOAT.” The acronym, applied to Mr. Bongino, stands for “greatest of all time.”This week, Mr. Patel faced calls from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers to provide records of his frequent yet congressionally mandated use of a government plane — which he is accused of using for luxury trips to faraway locales under the guise of official business — and his decision to purchase a fleet of BMW SUVs for professional use. Despite these reports, a person close to the Trump administration tells the Sun that Mr. Patel “is in good standing as of now.”“Every few months someone plants rumors he’s on thin ice but it’s mostly just noise,” the person adds. But on Friday, Mr. Patel was forced to cancel a planned trip to Chicago to watch his girlfriend perform at a country music festival after he was called to a meeting at the White House, two people familiar with the meeting tell the Sun.MSNOW reported that the “embattled” FBI director had been asked to speak with Trump administration officials who were “frustrated” by his behavior. But the FBI denied the report, saying Mr. Patel was called to the White House for official business and slamming MSNOW as a “failing outlet trying to get clicks!”That response was posted on the FBI’s Rapid Response account on X. Mr. Patel retweeted it on his professional X account immediately afterwards. “I was at the White House, true, and the fake news will find out why soon,” Mr. Patel wrote.

Kash Patel Taps Conservative Influencer and Charlie Kirk Collaborator To Run FBI’s Attack-Dog X Account

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