‘Hogwash and They Know it’: Kash Patel’s Country Singer Girlfriend Hits MS NOW With Defamation Lawsuit

(Photo by Samuel Corum/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

FBI Director Kash Patel’s girlfriend Alexis Wilkins filed a defamation lawsuit against Versant, the parent company of MS NOW, and reporters Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig on Monday.

The lawsuit accuses the reporters of publishing a “hogwash” story that implied the country singer was intoxicated and that one of her friends was so drunk that Patel “ordered” a security detail to take her home.

It also claimed MS NOW’s “hit piece” maliciously suggested she was a “heavy drinker” by saying she was out for a “night of partying” with her friends. “This is entirely false, as Ms. Wilkins very rarely drinks, if ever,” the lawsuit said.

Here is a key section from the lawsuit:

Defendants falsely asserted that Ms. Wilkins demanded, and Director Patel ordered, that federal agents assigned to her security detail—which did not even exist at the time—escort an intoxicated friend home after a “night of partying.” They falsely portrayed Ms. Wilkins as being intoxicated even knowing that she does not drink. Defendants presumed they could get away with this fiction by citing to “anonymous sources,” disingenuously claiming “nonpublic” and “inside” knowledge. This was hogwash and they knew it.

This is entirely false. Director Patel has never ordered any FBI agent or member of Ms. Wilkins’ security detail to escort any of Ms. Wilkins’ friends home— inebriated or otherwise—nor did Ms. Wilkins ask any of them to do so.

The lawsuit referred to a report from December, 5, 2025 from Dilanian and Leonnig titled “Kash Patel ordered FBI detail to give girlfriend’s pal a lift home: sources.”

It then included the first two paragraphs from the report:

FBI Director Kash Patel has — on more than one occasion — ordered that the security detail protecting his girlfriend escort one of her allegedly inebriated friends home after a night of partying in Nashville, according to three people with knowledge of the incidents.

Patel’s girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, asked FBI agents on her security team at least two times, including once this spring, to drive her friend home, and agents objected to diverting from their assignment, said the sources, who were granted anonymity to discuss nonpublic matters. But Patel insisted they do as Wilkins requested and in one case called the leader of Wilkins’ security detail and yelled at him to do so.

“These supposed demands/orders never take place, but the entire scenario is fabricated. No FBI agents have ever escorted any of Ms. Wilkins’ friends home,” the lawsuit added. “Defendants claimed in the Article that the substance of their defamatory allegations supposedly occurred in spring 2025. Notably, Ms. Wilkins did not have a security detail at that time. Defendants were aware of this.”

The lawsuit said Dilanian and Leonnig were aware Wilkins did not have a security detail in the spring of 2025 because they broke the story in November 2025 that she had “been recently assigned a [security] detail, necessary due to credible death threats.”

MS NOW defended its coverage in a statement shared with Mediaite.

The lawsuit is seeking “an award of compensatory, special, and punitive damages in excess” of $75,000. It is also seeking “other and further relief as the Court deems just.” Wilkins’ suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Nashville.

You can read it by clicking here.

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