FBI Ousts Leader as Patel Fumes Over Attention to Agency Jet Use

The FBI forced out a senior official overseeing aviation shortly after Director Kash Patel grew outraged about revelations of his publicly-available jet logs indicating he’d flown to see his musician girlfriend perform, said three people familiar with the situation.

Steven Palmer, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, became the third head of the critical incident response group—which includes FBI pilots—to be fired or removed in Patel’s short regime, adding to a year filled with retributive terminations.

His exit was made official Friday, and a replacement to head the bureau’s crisis management operations including hostage rescue and bomb detection, has already been posted on the FBI’s website.

Patel was angered this week by social media posts and news stories calling attention to his use of an FBI jet that arrived in State College, Pennsylvania, where his girlfriend, country music artist Alexis Wilkins, sang the national anthem at a wrestling match, said the individuals, who spoke anonymously out of fear of retaliation.

Palmer was told he needed to immediately resign or be fired, which the individuals said was at least partially connected to Patel’s fury over the negative media cycle on his personal travel.

Palmer’s position included supervising the FBI’s aviation units, but Patel’s flight schedule was readily traceable through online tracking services and he reposted photos of himself with Wilkins at the event on his personal X account.

The people familiar with the matter said they were baffled as to why Patel might’ve blamed Palmer for the travel details.

FBI directors are required to use government aircraft for personal or business travel in order to maintain secure communications. But public attention of Patel’s weekend outing—fueled by an X post from a former FBI agent turned outspoken Patel critic—comes after Patel had criticized predecessors for personal travel on taxpayer-funded jets.

An FBI spokesperson didn’t respond to requests for comment. Palmer declined to comment.

Patel shared on X an Oct. 30 post from his spokesman, which said articles and opposition to the director’s travel were “disingenuous and dumb” and “bad faith whining.”

The spokesman, Ben Williamson, also said that Patel follows rules requiring him to pay reimbursements for personal travel and has reduced costs of these trips by flying out of government airfields more often than his predecessors.

Continuous Turnover

Palmer stepped into the role of acting leader of the critical incident response group in August when the prior chief was fired. That predecessor, Brian Driscoll, is now suing the administration with other ousted FBI officials who say they were targeted for lacking loyalty to the president.

Wes Wheeler led the group until he was told to resign in March, along with numerous other leaders at FBI headquarters and Quantico.

The Bureau’s leadership page was updated to show Devin Kowalski, previously special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Juan branch, is now running CIRG. Kowalski had been appointed to take over as permanent head of CIRG before the jet controversy, but Palmer was planning to stay on his deputy, two of the people said.

Palmer joined the FBI as a special agent in 1998, before rising up to supervisor, assistant special agent in charge in Portland, Oregon, and then senior roles within CIRG at the FBI campus in Quantico, Virginia.

The head of the critical incident response team has oversight of thousands of agents and analysts specialized in handling dangerous threats, such as hostage rescues, and coordinating safety at major events like the Super Bowl and Olympics.

Kowalski arrives with some past experience working as a special assistant to the CIRG director. One point of concern, several of the sources said, is whether the next director will withstand pressure from FBI leadership to utilize its operations—including planes—for more mundane assignments that could be performed by local SWAT teams.