Kash Patel Wouldn't Be the First FBI Boss to Go Down By Turning His Official Plane Into a Private Jet

Investigative reporter Ron Kessler recounts how another FBI boss's term was short circuited by his personal use of the bureau's executive jet.

FBI Director Kash Patel waits for an extradition flight that was carrying Muhammed Sharifullah, who is accused of helping plan the Kabul airport bombing in August 2021. .

In the early 1990s, veteran investigative reporter Ronald Kessler cut an unusual deal with the FBI, one that was blessed at the very top by its then-director William Sessions: Kessler would be given unfettered access to the J. Edgar Hoover building for a planned book that would provide an exclusive behind the scenes look at how the FBI really operates.

But Kessler’s book project didn’t work out exactly as he had planned— as Sessions much to his chagrin soon discovered. In the course of his reporting, Kessler told me this week he was “shocked” to learn—thanks to tips from agents on Sessions’ own security detail—about alleged ethical abuses by the director himself. Among them: On multiple occasions, Sessions, a former federal judge, had used an FBI jet for personal trips, including jaunts to San Francisco to see his daughter and flying with his wife to Atlantic City to attend a performance of the Bolshoi Ballet at the Sands Hotel & Casino (which comped him the tickets).

Kessler’s discoveries produced an uproar.

When he wrote a letter to the FBI seeking comment for his book, the public affairs office dutifully turned it over to the Justice Department inspector general for review. Months later, after an IG report documented Sessions’ misuse of the FBI jet and other questionable actions, including the installation of a security fence around his home, the director got a call from President Bill Clinton telling him he was fired, making him the first FBI chief ever to be cashiered.

Past is Prologue

Sessions’ use of an FBI jet for personal travel has taken on new relevance amid disclosures that President Trump’s hand-picked director, Kash Patel, 45, last week used an FBI jet to fly to State College in Pennsylvania to attend a wrestling match where his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, 26, was singing the National Anthem. Then, when reports about the trip started to surface on social media, Patel fired the senior official in charge of planes, Steven Palmer, a 27 year FBI veteran who oversaw the bureau’s aviation division.

Patel, 45, and his girlfriend Alexis Witkins, 26 (Web Archive)

Nor was this the first time that Patel’s use of FBI aircraft has been questioned. In April, Patel, an avid hockey fan, used an FBI 757 jet to fly to New York to attend an NHL game where he watched Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin break the league’s all-time scoring record. Then, in August, Patel and “four or five” of his friends hopped aboard an FBI jet to fly to Scotland for a golfing trip, according to Chris O’Leary, a former senior FBI counter-terrorism official who has been tracking the use of the bureau’s aircraft.

Inside the bureau, there is “across the board outrage” over Patel’s use of FBI aircraft for fun and pleasure, said O’Leary. “At the end of the day, it’s theft of government resources. I mean, people have been thrown out of the bureau for this.”

Even more striking, however, are the parallels with Session’s misuse of the FBI aircraft. Stuart Gerson, a former Justice Department civil division chief who served as acting attorney general during the early months of the Clinton administration, recalls briefing the Clinton White House and Janet Reno, Clinton’s pick to be attorney general, about Sessions’ conduct and recommending he be fired. Today, “There’s more than parallels” between Patel’s and Sessions’ travels, Gerson told me. “It’s congruency. It’s the same thing. Under normal circumstances, the IG should investigate this. It looks on its face like an emolument.”

Omerta

SpyTalk reached out to the FBI public affairs office with a series of questions, including how often Patel has used FBI aircraft for personal purposes, whether his trips were approved by any FBI lawyer or ethics official, and how much Patel has compensated the bureau for his trips. The office responded with a terse email saying that due to the government shutdown, “FBI operations are directed toward national security, violations of federal law, and essential public safety functions. Media inquiries outside of these functions will be considered when the lapse in appropriations ends.”

But Patel’s chief spokesman, Ben Williamson, posted on X that Patel, like all directors, is required to use FBI aircraft for all travel because of security issues and “for personal travel, the Director pays a reimbursement in advance- strictly following OMB rules.” He did not, however, specify which trips and how many times Patel has compensated the government for his trips to see his girlfriend, watch a hockey game, go golfing, or for other personal purposes. (He also spends “a lot of time” at a second home in Las Vegas, according to reports.)

Williamson did, however, say on his X post: “Kash himself has significantly limited personal travel—but he’s allowed to take personal time on occasion to see family, friends or his longtime girlfriend. He doesn’t do it often. He works far more full weekends than he does otherwise. And maybe most importantly—ask anyone who works for him, he’s on duty 24/7.”

He then added: “We have zero time for people who peddle trash because they have nothing better to do— or, even better, because the Russian collusion hoax they spent years writing about failed in their end goal. A real shame.”

Patel Objection

But Patel himself also responded—mainly by praising his girlfriend, the country singer. “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 wrote on X. “She is a rock-sold conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this national than most will in ten lifetimes. I’m so blessed in my life. Attacking her isn’t just wrong— it’s cowardly and jeopardizes our safety.”

In fact, none of the main media stories about Patel’s trip to watch his girlfriend sing the national anthem in State College included personal attacks on her.

In this, reporter Kessler—who first uncovered Sessions’ abuses— sees another parallel between Patel and his long ago predecessor. When Kessler finally confronted Sessions about his findings, he got a half hour tongue lashing from the director. Sessions told the reporter he was “offended” and “disappointed” that he had delved into personal matters rather than “the great work” the FBI was doing— and then launched into a vigorous defense of his wife— who he had taken on many of his trips aboard the FBI jet — who, he said, “occupied a special and important place in the bureau.”

That Patel, too, would respond with a defense of his girlfriend was telling, Kessler said. “He goes on about what a wonderful person she is,” he said. “It shows a total blindness to the ethical issues involved.”