A controversial FBI whistleblower turned right wing videocaster is taking FBI director Kash Patel to task for using a $60 million government jet to privately fly his girlfriend to a wrestling event in Pennsylvania amid an ongoing government shutdown.

The timing of Mr. Patel’s trip to State College, Pennsylvania, where Mr. Patel’s girlfriend Alexis Wilkins, who was scheduled to perform the national anthem at the Real American Freestyle event, struck Kyle Seraphin, an FBI “Suspendable” turned political commentator and Infowars contributor, as a “really awful look.”

“It makes it look like he’s an elitist and he’s flying around like a billionaire,” Mr. Seraphin tells the Sun.

The self-styled “Suspendables” were whistleblowers who maintain they had their security clearances revoked and were placed on unpaid leave during the Biden administration for their political beliefs and personal objections to Covid-19 vaccine mandates and investigations into January 6 protesters. Many of the Suspendables were reinstated or otherwise exonerated soon after Mr. Trump’s return to power, but Mr. Seraphin has remained on the fringes and emerged as a harsh critic of Mr. Patel, a former friend.

Before becoming FBI director, Mr. Patel called his predecessor, Christopher Wray, a “Government gangster” for frequently using a Gulfstream jet registered to the Justice Department for personal reasons.

Flight logs for Mr. Patel’s plane on Flightaware show that on October 25, the jet flew to State College Airport in Pennsylvania, the site of the wrestling event, shortly before Ms. Wilkins was slated to sing the National Anthem. 

On her Instagram account, Ms. Wilkins posted a selfie of her with a smiling Mr. Patel at the event.

“So I flew the FBI jet to State College PA, hung out with my chick, and then flew to Nashville where she lives,” Mr. Seraphin said on X while including pictures of Ms. Wilkins and Mr. Patel posing at the RAF event and screengrabs of Mr. Patel’s flightlog. 

The plane did indeed depart that same evening to Nashville, where Ms. Wilkins lives. As FBI director, Mr. Patel is considered a “required use traveler” and is required to fly on planes that are equipped with SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) communications, FBI directors are required to reimburse the government for use of the plane at the cost of a commercial plane ticket. However, operational costs like fuel and airport landing fees are covered by taxpayer money.

In 2023, during the Biden Administration, Mr. Seraphin’s fellow FBI “Suspendable”  Steven Friend, was among the most vocal critics of Mr. Wray’s jet use, alleging he had abused the privilege “because he doesn’t like to sit in traffic.”

That same year, Mr. Patel demanded on his “Kash’s Corner” podcast that Mr. Wray’s private jet “that he pays for with taxpayer dollars to hop around the country” be grounded.  

“I really hate hypocrisy. I despise it,” Mr. Seraphin said on his podcast, “The Kyle Seraphin Show,” on Thursday. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s Gavin Newsom sitting at French Laundry during Covid, Nancy Pelosi getting her hair blown out, or whether it’s people inside my former agency using our money in a way that is disrespectful to us.”

During the Biden administration, Senators Josh Hawley and Charles Grassley were apoplectic over Mr. Wray’s use of a private jet, most notably after he left a Senate oversight hearing early under the guise of attending a business matter. It would later turn out Mr. Wray was leaving for a family vacation in the Adirondacks. 

“Republicans called this out when Chris Wray was in office, and rightly so. The difference here is they don’t call it out today because, quote, unquote, their guy’s now in the FBI,” Mr. Seraphin tells the Sun. 

FBI directors are not mandated to live exclusively in Washington D.C. during their tenure. Mr. Wray maintained his Atlanta home and frequently flew between Georgia and Washington DC. Mr. Patel maintains a residence in Las Vegas and travels similarly. Mr. Seraphin believes that to avoid future abuse, incoming directors should be required to move to the D.C. area as a “permanent change of station.”

On Thursday, FBI spokesman Ben Williamson defended Mr. Patel’s use of a private plane. “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 regardless,” Mr. Williamson wrote on X. 

Spokespeople for Senators Hawley and Grassley did not respond to emails requesting comment.

This is the latest salvo in Mr. Seraphin’s tête-à-tête with Mr. Patel and Ms. Wilkins. Before Mr. Patel took over the FBI, the two men had a friendly rapport and regularly exchanged texts and emails, including one in which Mr. Patel asked Mr. Seraphin to identify the “people in the FBI who were problems.”

Mr. Seraphin identified Spencer Evans, the  former special agent in charge for Las Vegas, whom he accused of denying him religious accommodations during the bureau’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate. 

“Kash said ‘Gone,’” Mr. Seraphin wrote on X. Mr. Evans was dismissed in September. 

He is one of three former high-ranking FBI officials who have sued Mr. Patel, his co-deputy director, Daniel Bongino, and Attorney General Pam Bondi over what they allege were unconstitutional firings.

“Thank you guys for your relentless friendship and mission love. You guys made this possible,” Mr. Patel wrote to Messrs. Friend and Seraphin in January.

Since then, Messrs. Patel and Seraphin’s relationship has soured. Mr. Seraphin, who served in the FBI from 2016 to 2022, was not among the Suspendables reinstated by FBI leadership.

In August, Ms. Wilkins, a country music singer and former child actor, sued Mr. Seraphin for $5 million in damages after he accused her on his show of being a “honeypot” and an Israeli spy seeking access to the Trump administration. Mr. Seraphin also described Mr. Patel as “cross-eyed” and “super cool bro” who is “Indian in America.”

“I have retained counsel, and we will have a substantive filing to respond shortly,” Mr. Seraphin tells the Sun, when asked about the status of Ms. Wilkins’s lawsuit.

An attorney for Ms. Wilkins did not respond to a request for comment.

On his podcast “The Kyle Seraphin Show” Thursday morning, Mr. Seraphin said the FBI launched an internal “leak” investigation “to find out who funneled me information about Kash Patel’s jet-setting trip.”