Alex GriffingApr 22nd, 2026, 5:14 pm

New York Times investigative reporter Michael S. Schmidt revealed on Wednesday that the FBI investigated one of his colleagues after she wrote on an unflattering story about FBI Director Kash Patel.

Schmidt reported that the FBI started investigating Elizabeth Williamson, a Washington DC based features writer for the Times, in March. Williamson penned a report on Patel’s use of government resources to give his country singer girlfriend Alexis Wilkins both security and transportation. “Kash Patel’s Girlfriend Seeks Fame and Fortune, Escorted by an F.B.I. SWAT Team,” was the title of Williamson’s article on the subject, which ran in late February.

“Agents interviewed the girlfriend, queried databases for information on the reporter, Elizabeth Williamson, and recommended moving forward to determine whether Ms. Williamson broke federal stalking laws,” reported Schmidt, citing sources familiar with the investigation. Schmidt added:

Those actions prompted concerns among some Justice Department officials who saw the inquiry as retaliation for an article that Mr. Patel and his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, did not like, and who determined there was no legal basis to proceed with the investigation, according to the person briefed on the matter.

The FBI responded to the Times’s request for comment on the investigation, confirming the investigation, but adding that “while investigators were concerned about how the aggressive reporting techniques crossed lines of stalking,” the bureau is not looking at a case against Williamson.

Patel is currently suing The Atlantic for $250 million after the publication ran a story in which two dozen witnesses alleged Patel has engaged in “bouts of excessive drinking” and had “unexplained absences,” causing concern at the Department of Justice.

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