It’s the private government plane that launched a thousand “clickbait haters” against the embattled FBI director, Kash Patel. 

The ninth FBI director is facing increasing heat from the media and even some influential MAGA personalities over his extensive use of a government plane and his girlfriend Alexis Wilkins’s recent spate of lawsuits against right wing critics who accused her of being an Israeli “honeypot” — all against the backdrop of a Justice Department that has reportedly grown frustrated by his very public, and seemingly careless, gaffes.

These include Mr. Patel’s hasty announcement on X that the FBI “thwarted a potential terrorist attack” on Halloween weekend by arresting several alleged terrorists in Michigan — despite there being no criminal charges 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.

Two teenage accomplices of the alleged terrorists behind the planned ISIS-inspired attack on gay nightclubs in Detroit learned of the arrests on X and sped up their plans to leave the country, per the Journal. 

The Justice Department told the White House that Mr. Patel’s premature announcement “disrupted the investigation” — a similar complaint to Mr. Patel’s rushed decision to publicize the arrest of Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer in September, despite that suspect being released a short time later. The actual suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, turned himself in to local authorities the following day. 

Then there is Mr. Patel’s use of the government plane, which he is mandated by Congress to do, to fly his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, to a wrestling event in Pennsylvania during the government lockdown.  

On his personal X account, Mr. Patel reposted photos taken by Ms. Wilkins showing the smiling couple at the event — a move that detractors and supporters alike called “bad optics.” Right-wing podcaster and ex-FBI agent Kyle Seraphin, who was among the first to report on the trip, told the Sun Mr. Patel’s use of the plane made it “look like he’s an elitist and he’s flying around like a billionaire.” 

After the event, Mr. Patel flew his girlfriend to Nashville, where she lives. He eventually flew to San Antonio, Texas, where he visited the Boondoggle Ranch, a “scenic hunting resort” with exotic foreign animals like kudu and blue wildebeest, owned by C.R. “Bubba” Saulsbury Jr., a Republican donor. 

Mr. Patel’s frequent use of the jet — which also included an August trip to Scotland — has irked Justice Department officials and the White House, which cautioned Cabinet officials to “limit their travel,” according to the Journal. 

In response, Mr. Patel called the Wall Street Journal’s report “hot garbage” and “fake news.”

On Wednesday, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and her deputy, Todd Blanche, took to X to defend Mr. Patel while criticizing the newspaper for not including their quotes in the story. 

“We work tirelessly with @FBIDirectorKash and the FBI each day to execute our shared mission to make America safe again by ensuring murderers, violent criminals, and terrorists face the most severe justice,” Ms. Bondi said on X.

“This reporting is flat-out false. The Attorney General and I have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Director Patel every step of the way,” Mr. Blanche posted on X.

As FBI director, Mr. Patel is considered a “required use traveler” and is mandated by law to fly on planes that are equipped with SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) communications. He is also required to  reimburse the government for when the plane is used for personal reasons — all at the cost of a commercial plane ticket. That of course is a fraction of the price of a trip on the government jet.  

Prior to becoming FBI director, Mr. Patel called his predecessor, Christopher Wray, a “government gangster” for flying the jet in likewise fashion.  

FBI spokesman Ben Williamson, said on X that Mr. Patel reimburses the bureau in advance and has “significantly limited personal travel.”

“He doesn’t do it often. He works far more weekends than he does otherwise,” Mr. Williamson said. 

A report from Just The News found that Mr. Patel was averaging 2.48 flights per week — a close second to ex-FBI Director James Comey, who averaged 2.58 flights. Mr. Wray, the man whom Mr. Patel once said in 2023 should have his plane grounded for using taxpayer dollars “to hop around the country,” averaged 1.98 flights per week.

“Is John Solomon embarrassed that he is posting out THIS kind of nonsense,” Mr. Seraphin said of the report, which was co-written by Just the News editor-in-chief and CEO John Solomon, on X.

Meanwhile, Ms. Wilkins has rankled several prominent MAGA figures after filing separate $5 million defamation lawsuits against social media personalities Elijah Schaffer and Samuel Parker, accusing them of insinuating she was a Mossad spy. Ms. Wilkins filed a similar $5 million lawsuit against Mr. Seraphin in August. 

In doing so, Ms. Wilkins appears to be borrowing from Mr. Patel’s legal playbook when dealing with unfavorable and accusatory media coverage. Since 2019, Mr. Patel has sued Politico, CNN, and New York Times — cases he either withdrew or were dismissed. 

But earlier in August, Mr. Patel and his eponymous foundation, The Kash Foundation, were awarded $250,000 in compensatory and punitive damages related to their defamation suit against blogger Jim Stewartson, who claimed Mr. Patel was a “Kremlin asset” and paid people to “lie to Congress.”

The Binnall Law Group, which is led by the president of the Kash Foundation, Jesse Binnall, is representing Ms. Wilkins in all three lawsuits.

“Kash Patel has to step down. This is excruciatingly embarrassing.  He’s a teenager in love representing the Federal government,” the right-wing provocateur, Candace  Owens wrote in response to the lawsuit on X. 

“I’m also suing anyone who said mean things to me,” former ProudBoys leader Enrique Tarrio joked on X.

In a nearly 15-minute video response posted on X,  Mr. Schaffer, the CEO of Rift TV, said he was taking on Ms. Wilkins’s lawsuit “with full force.”

“You wanted a fight, you got one, Kash.”