FBI considered investigating NYT reporter who covered Kash Patel for "stalking"

According to the Times, agents interviewed Wilkins and queried for information about Williamson, eventually recommending an investigation to see if she broke federal stalking laws—a move that even some in the FBI viewed as overreach and as retaliatory. The FBI told the Times that “while investigators were concerned about how the aggressive reporting techniques crossed lines of stalking,” it ultimately did not pursue an investigation. The Times maintains that Williamson followed normal journalistic procedures for the article and was never in the presence of Wilkins; she’s said to have emailed Wilkins at the beginning of the investigation asking for a list of people she could interview, which Wilkins never responded to. 

The article in question was not even the first to report on Patel and Wilkins’ use of private planes and of SWAT teams for personal security; the Times itself was one of the outlets to report on it back in November, though with different authors. The February article does report that the couple’s use of these things was “to an extent not previously reported,” but it also features a good deal of Patel’s and Wilkins’ own social media posts and remarks on podcasts as sources. The article does drill down on how unusual it is for the spouse of a government employee to receive this kind of security—even Paul Pelosi, who was literally attacked with a hammer in his home, only had the Capitol Police install security cameras around his home. It also includes the kind of funny (in the way that makes you sigh heavily) anecdote that the FBI had to scramble a team of tactical agents for a dinner with King Charles after the U.K. government refused to pick Wilkins up at the airport.