FBI Director Kash Patel’s country music performer girlfriend currently enjoys the protection of an FBI security detail to shield her from potential threats, prompting concerns that the arrangement may delay law enforcement from responding to other incidents, two people with direct knowledge tell MS NOW.

Alexis Wilkins, Patel’s girlfriend, has a security detail made up of elite FBI agents usually assigned to a SWAT team in the FBI field office in Nashville, where Wilkins spends time for her work. She and Patel first met in Nashville and while they travel together at times, they do not share a residence. Patel often travels to Washington for work but keeps a legal residence in Las Vegas.

People familiar with FBI security protocols said they were unaware of any instance in which the girlfriends of top FBI officials received government-staffed security details. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s wife Helen received a security detail; she lived with Wray in their home in Atlanta.

SWAT team agents on a detail with Wilkins would presumably be unable to respond or delayed in responding to crises that might develop in their territory, such as mass shootings or terror attacks, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters......

“There is no legitimate justification for this. This is a clear abuse of position and misuse of government resources,” said Christopher O’Leary, a former senior FBI agent and MS NOW law enforcement contributor. “She is not his spouse, does not live in the same house or even the same city.”