That girlfriend, by the way, is Alexis Wilkins, the pride of Weymouth.
Wilkins left the South Shore for Arkansas and a globe-trotting childhood, attended a Christian university in Nashville, Tenn., and became a rapper.
Just kidding! She became a country singer, perhaps influenced by all the country music paraphernalia that hangs on the walls at Easter’s Country Kitchen, the great Weymouth diner.
But in her promotional material, Wilkins doesn’t mention her humble roots on the South Shore.
Her profile at the recent International Christian Media Convention described her as “a country music artist, writer, and political commentator who doesn’t just talk about American values — she lives them. Raised in Arkansas and Europe and now based in Nashville, she has built a career at the intersection of music and conservative media.”
Her social media postings show she says “woke” a lot, and doesn’t like things or people she considers woke. She described Alex Pretti, the VA nurse who was shot to death in Minneapolis by federal agents, as a “domestic terrorist.”
Thanks to some great reporting by The New York Times, which has increased its accountability journalism even as the owner of The Washington Post spends tens of millions of dollars on a fawning, servile documentary on the first lady, we learned quite a bit about Wilkins.
First, like most people in the music business, she had trouble jump-starting her career, but she’s getting more gigs these days, singing at conservative events, a career boost attributed at least in part to her boyfriend.
But that boyfriend, who, remember, is the FBI director, is nothing if not overprotective. Wherever Wilkins goes, she’s accompanied by FBI agents, all of it paid for by taxpayers.
One time, they escorted her to a resort near London, while Patel was attending a security conference. The British government team that provides security to the royal family and other VIPs declined to pick her up at the airport in London, so a hastily arranged FBI team did so, according to the Times.
Another time, an FBI SWAT team provided armed protection for her as she got her hair done at a Nashville salon.
According to Elizabeth Williamson, the Times reporter who did the deep dive on Patel and his singing paramour, “SWAT teams are chiefly trained to arrest violent criminals, free hostages and thwart terrorists. But Mr. Patel’s demand that rotating SWAT teams provide his girlfriend with security for singing appearances, personal engagements and errands is unprecedented in the F.B.I., former agents said.”
When it comes to Patel and the FBI, a lot is unprecedented. Patel is the youngest FBI director ever, with a slim law enforcement resume. He was chosen for his loyalty to Donald Trump, not the Constitution. While previous FBI directors were selected with bipartisan support, his 51-49 Senate confirmation was the narrowest in history.
In a statement, the FBI said Wilkins required extensive protection by SWAT teams because her relationship with Patel, which began three years ago, makes her the target of death threats.
But if that’s the case, wouldn’t it make more sense to assign FBI agents to ferret out the threats and arrest those making them?
Never mind. It’s more important to sing, which, given her talent and profession, Wilkins does at the drop of a hat.
Last month, a SWAT team was on hand when she sang the national anthem at a fund-raising gala for cancer research at the Chaparral Country Club in Palm Desert, Calif. Then they drove her 135 miles to LAX so she could catch a flight, the Times reported.
Patel defended the taxpayer-paid travel and protection for Wilkins while she sat next to him during an appearance on the podcast of Katie Miller, wife of Stephen Miller, the architect of the Trump administration’s draconian immigration policy who makes Patel look warm and fuzzy.
According to Patel, if he were really abusing his position and federal funding, ”I would go see every one of her shows.”
As he sees it, doing his job, rather than going to all of her shows, demonstrates considerable fiscal restraint.
He took to X to offer a full-throated defense of his use of a government jet to attend a wrestling match at Penn State where Wilkins sang, yet again, the national anthem.
“She is a rock-solid conservative and a country music sensation who has done more for this nation than most will in ten lifetimes,” he wrote
Well, that settles that.
A couple of weeks ago, Patel crashed the post-game celebration after the US men’s hockey team won the gold medal game against Canada in an overtime thriller.
Channeling Will Ferrell in “Old School” more than Efrem Zimbalist Jr. in the old school “The FBI” television series, Patel chugged beers and acted like he was on the team.
Those defending his actions noted he is a hockey guy of some repute. What any of that has to do with leading the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency is anyone’s guess.
In fairness, FBI directors who came before Patel, including the aforementioned Bill Sessions, oversaw some indefensible and even criminal actions by the FBI, none more odious than the FBI’s protection of South Boston mob leader Whitey Bulger, their pretty useless snitch.
The FBI, with the complicity of a Justice Department obsessed with taking out Mafia families in Boston and beyond, not only looked the other way while Bulger was murdering people and making millions from tribute as the Southie he claimed to keep drugs out of was awash in them. FBI agents fingered prospective stool pigeons so Whitey could murder them.
So, maybe having an FBI director who spends an inordinate amount of government time and resources on his country singer girlfriend isn’t the worst thing in the world.
But, then, maybe, just maybe, Patel could pay for the travel and protection he thinks his girlfriend needs out of his own pocket.
He’s got the, um, cash.
Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at kevin.cullen@globe.com.
