In high school, a lithesome girl such as Alexis Wilkins would have walked past a loathsome guy like Kash Patel as if he were a wall locker.

So it is not surprising that 46-year-old Patel has seemed keen to impress his 27-year-old gal pal Wilkins with his unlikely importance, beginning with having her at his side when he took the federal oath of office last year.

They both appeared to be delighted with themselves as he swore to support and defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. That Constitution includes the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press, even when it comes to articles about your girlfriend.

Patel got the job partly because of irrational right-wing ravings and deep state conspiracy theories such as he put forth in his 2023 book Government Gangsters. He has called the mainstream media the “fake news mafia.” They are, he claims, “the most powerful enemy that the United States has ever seen.”

Yet, when New York Times reporter Elizabeth Williamson revealed that the FBI had been providing security and protection to Wilkins, Patel responded like a Cosa Nostra capo whose goomah has been slighted.

A mob boss would have had a couple of thugs find out what they could about the offender, and pay him a visit. Patel, the New York Times reported, had a supervisory agent at FBI headquarters run a check on Williamson. The agent then reportedly sought permission from the Department of Justice to open an investigation into whether Williamson violated stalking laws when reporting the story.

The only surprise in all that is that the DOJ declined to authorize the investigation, for reasons that are not immediately clear.

But even as the Trump administration continually presses us to cynically expect the worst, we should still recognize........

© The Daily Beast