Ben Williamson on Media

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Ben Williamson

Role at the time: FBI spokesperson, in a statement quoted by MS NOW

December 5, 2025Denied

Response to this claim

FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson told MS NOW "This is made up and did not happen," and wrote on X on December 5, 2025 that those involved told him it did not happen and that he found no corroboration or record of it.

“This is made up and did not happen”

Open sourceMS NOW: Kash Patel ordered FBI detail to give girlfriend's pal a lift home: sources (Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian), December 5, 2025 · MS NOWParagraphs 1 to 5 (the reported incidents and the FBI's response); page stamped Dec. 5, 2025, 5:00 AM EST, updated 9:23 AM EST

MS NOW's report by Carol Leonnig and Ken Dilanian. It attributes the account to three unnamed people with knowledge, who it says were "granted anonymity to discuss nonpublic matters". It gives no date for the incidents beyond "this spring", no name for the friend and no description of the sources. It quotes FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson, and one sentence introducing his quotation was changed on December 5, 2025 (see the two archived captures). The text we cite is the live version, and we found no correction note on it as of October 5, 2026. More than half of the article concerns other criticism of Patel and is not part of this case.

Archived copy

Why we used this label

The reference point is the proposition that, on at least one occasion, FBI Director Kash Patel ordered the FBI agents assigned to protect Alexis Wilkins to escort or drive a friend of hers home, as MS NOW reported on December 5, 2025. Williamson says the reported events "did not happen", which is an explicit statement that the reported conduct did not occur, so we used Denied. The closest competing label is Challenged the characterization. It loses because he does not dispute a description or the reporting's framing in this line; he says the events did not occur.

Read statement Did FBI Director Kash Patel order the security detail protecting Alexis Wilkins to drive a friend home, as MS NOW reported?

Ben Williamson on Media

Statement history

Denied