Patel’s girlfriend sues MS NOW over false-source FBI security story

Alexis Wilkins, the country music artist and actor who is dating FBI Director Kash Patel, filed a federal lawsuit in Nashville on Friday accusing MS NOW of publishing a false story about FBI security detail misuse and then dressing it up with “sham” anonymous sources.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, names MS NOW, former MSNBC reporters Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig, and parent company Versant Media Group. It targets a Dec. 5, 2025 article headlined “Kash Patel ordered FBI detail to give girlfriend’s pal a lift home: sources,” which said Patel had, more than once, directed FBI security personnel assigned to Wilkins to drive one of her allegedly inebriated friends home after nights out in Nashville. MS NOW said the report was based on three people with knowledge of the incidents.

Wilkins says the story was “entirely false.” Her lawsuit says neither she nor Patel ever asked federal agents to escort any of her friends home, and that no FBI agents ever did so. It also says the article falsely suggested she was a heavy drinker, even though she does not drink. The complaint further argues that the alleged spring 2025 episodes could not have happened because Wilkins did not have a security detail at the time.

The suit seeks at least $75,000 in damages and includes defamation and false-light invasion-of-privacy claims. That puts the dispute squarely in the middle of a familiar legal fight: how far a newsroom can go when relying on unnamed sources in a politically charged story, and what happens if those sources are wrong, thin, or fabricated. Wilkins’ lawyers say MS NOW knowingly published lies and used anonymous sources that were not what they claimed to be.

MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler said the network stands firmly behind its reporting, while declining to comment on pending legal matters. The FBI had previously said Wilkins was receiving a protective detail because she had faced hundreds of credible death threats tied to her relationship with Patel, and the bureau disputed the account underlying the MS NOW article, saying it was “made up.”

The case lands as Patel faces wider scrutiny over his use of FBI resources, including criticism for using government jets to visit Wilkins, and as he separately sues The Atlantic over another report. For newsrooms, the Wilkins case could become a sharp reminder that anonymous sourcing is not a shield when the factual core of a story is challenged in court.