Fire Kash Patel

1,748 words

Editor’s Note: Neither David Zsutty nor Counter-Currents are giving legal advice

On Monday, Elijah Schaffer of Rift TV reported that Kash Patel’s girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against him.

Another influencer had made an X post discussing how Mossad uses honey pot agents. Schaffer then reposted that post with a picture of Patel and Wilkins without any commentary. According to Wilkins, there was an unspoken implication that she is a Mossad agent and this has caused her $5 million dollars in damages. Most of the civil complaint she filled consists of complaining about how Schaffer criticizes Israel and supposedly is a bad person.

Wilkins is not a Mossad agent. I have not seen any credible evidence that she is, only vague and sensationalist conjecture. She is a white Christian country singer from the South. There’s no hard evidence that she is secretly manipulating Patel. Aside from contributing to PragerU and filing this and two similar lawsuits, there’s hardly any evidence that she is even a generic Zionist. I am fatigued by the schizophrenic conspiracy mongering that plagues the infotainment sphere so I usually ignore it and any associated drama. But I cannot ignore this lawsuit due to its broader implications.

It does not matter whether Wilkins is a Mossad agent. It does not matter whether Schaffer implied that she is a Mossad agent. It does not matter whether implying that she is a Mossad agent is tacky. It does not matter whether Wilkin’s lawsuit is motivated in whole or in part by Zionism, clout chasing, being genuinely offended, or some other motive.

What matters is that Wilkins is the girlfriend of the Director of the FBI and that her lawsuit is a textbook example of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP).

SLAPPs are not filed on meritorious claims, but rather to shut down free speech. About half of them are for defamation. When a plaintiff in a defamation case is a public figure, they must carry the difficult burden of proving actual malice. Actual malice requires the defendant to publish a defamatory statement either knowingly or with reckless disregard for the truth. Plaintiffs who are private figures just must prove negligent disregard for the truth, which is easier. Wilkins is a public figure: both generally as a country music star, and as a limited-purpose public figure by virtue of dating Kash Patel.

If Wilkins wants to date the Director of the FBI, she must accept the natural detriments that come alongside any benefits. This includes rampant speculation during a time of extreme and well-deserved distrust of the government. It is similar to how being called a fed comes with being even a minor movement figure. If Wilkins can’t handle the scrutiny that comes with dating Patel, she should rope herself a cowboy instead.

Wilkins appears to be a frequent flyer. As of now, we know that she has filed two other similar defamation suits against influencers critical of Zionism which have all the hallmarks of a SLAPP: one on October 31 against Sam Parker who unsuccessfully ran for US Senate in Utah, and the other on August 27 against the FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin.

What’s truly shocking is that Wilkins filed all three suits through Jesse Binnall, who is the chair of Patel’s “Fight With Kash” foundation and his personal lawyer. If the suit isn’t dismissed, Schaffer has said that he will explore that connection in discovery. I don’t know which is worse: Kash Patel using his girlfriend as a proxy to tyrannize Heritage Americans for exercising their free speech, or not being able to manage his girlfriend when he’s expected to manage the FBI which is one of the most noxious ponds in the deep state swamp.

Whether Kash Patel is using his girlfriend as a proxy to silence critics of Israel or is haplessly oblivious to her doings is irrelevant. The American people shouldn’t have to speculate about such questions. It is not enough for the Director of the FBI to simply refrain from impropriety. He must not give the appearance thereof either.

Wilkins’ SLAPPs echo how people in the UK, Belgium, and Australia go to jail for tweets, memes, and stickers. Are we to walk on eggshells, wondering if we will have to defend against a meritless lawsuit whenever we accuse, or even vaguely suggest, that a pundit or politician took $7,000 to make a Zionist post, as Matt Gaetz often does? MAGA frequently criticizes Europe for their lack of free speech. For example, J.D. Vance has repeatedly excoriated various Eurocrats on this issue. But for criticism of Europe to be effective, America must practice and appear to practice what it preaches.

With a SLAPP, the process is the punishment. Anti-SLAPP measures do exist such as special early motions to dismiss, attorney fee shifting, and SLAPP-back suits (the details vary by jurisdiction). But even then, it’s rarely truly enough. The defendant is still intimidated, exactly as intended. Even if they are almost certain to prevail on a special motion to dismiss, the mere threat of having to defend in litigation and a jury trial is stressful. And everyone else takes note too, exactly as intended.

In addition to the usual harm caused by a SLAPP, Schaffer detailed how the lawsuit appears to have sparked a wave of online harassment against him, including violent threats. Due to the severity and number of violent threats he has decided to relocate himself and his family even though the holidays are coming up. Whether or not that was the intent of the lawsuit, that was the effect. Schaffer has asked Wilkins to condemn the threats. I certainly do.

Schaffer explained this in a Rumble video that was titled: I got DOXXED from the “$5M FBI Lawsuit” & NEED to EVACUATE. “Doxing” is usually taken to mean the revelation of private information. I listened, waiting for the part when Schaffer would detail how the lawsuit had identified his home or other personal information. But he didn’t. He only explained how the complaint painted him in a bad light—just as the media did to President Trump, Charlie Kirk, and Nick Fuentes—and how this encourages violence. I agree completely with that point. But it is not “doxing.”

While Schaffer and his family have my sympathies, I also condemn his use of slopulist clickbait. Playing fast and loose is how he got in this mess to begin with. It also served to detract from how the lawsuit seems to have encouraged violent threats, which is a serious issue. My condemnation should illustrate an important point: in America, we don’t censor speech we don’t like. We counter it with free speech of our own. I wish Wilkins (and Patel if he is involved) would understand that too.

While I’m optimistic that Schaffer will prevail with a special anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss, legal remedies aren’t enough. This is ultimately a political issue even if it is being fought in a legal arena. Thus, Kash Patel must face severe political consequences in addition to legal consequences.

Kash Patel must either resign or be fired. Regardless of whether he knew about it, his girlfriend’s attack on real Americans with his legal resources looks like a lawsuit by proxy, which is improper given his station. Prior to this, Patel categorially failed to discipline the FBI and produce results.

Kash Patel should be using his immense power and resources to clean out the FBI of subversives, to prosecute antifa, the conspiracy to murder Charlie Kirk, anti-white discrimination, and the stolen election of 2020. At the top of the list should be Shauni Rae Kerkhoff, whom the Blaze recently identified via forensic gait analysis with 94% certainty as being the J6 pipe bomber. Kerkhoff is a female Capitol Police officer who by her own admission in court shot pepper balls at the heads of J6 protestors. About half a year after J6 she transferred to security at CIA headquarters, where she continues to work. Yet Patel has failed to investigate the J6 fedsurrection to such an extent that it can only be inferred as intentional at this point.

The purpose of a system is what it does. The difference in urgency between arresting the J6 pipe bomber and the kid who threw spare change at Dave Portnoy’s feet undeniably reveals how the US legal system is designed to persecute whites while coddling Jews. That includes the Trump administration. I will not indulge the sock puppet game of liberal democracy in which it is always someone else’s fault.

Instead of delivering justice to Kerkhoff, Kash Patel appears to be using his girlfriend as a proxy to silence and intimidate those who dare exercise their freedom of speech against the oligarchy. Patel may have perfectly assimilated into the worst of American anarcho-tyranny. But he has catastrophically failed to assimilate into the culture of real America which cherishes free speech. His acts or omissions make him look as foreign and hostile as Ilhan Omar, Zohran Mamdani, and Barrack Hussein Obama.

I knew that Trump was a Zionist. Yet I voted for him anyways for mass deportations, free speech, and a reprieve from anarcho-tyranny. But despite the laudable efforts of ICE and DHS, deportations simply are not where they need to be. Trump’s latest comments on legal H-1B migrants to Laura Ingraham are the opposite of America First. And now we have the Director of the FBI apparently using his girlfriend to chill legitimate criticism of the government, just like the old FBI under Dark Brandon.

During Trump’s first term, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for the FBI’s malicious and selective prosecution of Rob Rundo and the Rise Above Movement. He could barely defend himself against the deep state’s attacks, let alone stick up for others. But making excuses for Trump in his second term is to fall into the “Good Tsar, bad Boyars” fallacy that Josh Neil recently discussed.

There is no reasonable option other than for Kash Patel resigning or Trump firing him.

As a former NCO, I like standards and discipline. The standard to which the President should be held is “the buck stops here.” He must be accountable for the acts and omissions of his directors, just as Kash Patel must be accountable for his girlfriend. The exact details are irrelevant. In politics, appearance is reality. Trump and Patel are managers. They must manage their subordinates. And if they fail to discipline their subordinates when they go astray, they too must be disciplined. By us.