FBI Director Kash Patel files defamation suit against The Atlantic

Washington: FBI Director Kash Patel has filed a defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick over an article that alleged he had a drinking problem and was frequently absent from work, claims Patel has denied.

According to Reuters, the lawsuit was filed after The Atlantic published a report on Friday that said Patel’s alleged conduct could pose a national security risk. The article was initially published under the headline

Kash Patel’s Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job

and cited more than two dozen anonymous sources who voiced concern over what it described as Patel’s visible intoxication and unexplained absences, which it said had worried officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice.

The online version of the article was later retitled

The FBI Director Is MIA

. Reuters said it could not independently verify the claims made in The Atlantic’s report or determine why the headline was changed.

The article alleged that early meetings at the FBI had to be rescheduled because of Patel’s late-night drinking and that he was often away or unreachable, slowing decisions needed to move investigations forward. Reuters reported that the White House, the Department of Justice and Patel all denied the allegations in The Atlantic’s story.

The report also carried a statement from the FBI attributed to Patel, which said:

Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court, bring your checkbook.

Patel repeated his denial in an interview with Reuters, saying:

The Atlantic’s story is a lie. They were given the truth before they published, and they chose to print falsehoods anyway.

After Patel threatened legal action during an appearance on Fox News on Sunday, The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg told CNBC:

We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel.

Lawsuit seeks $250 million

The complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks $250 million in damages. It argues that while The Atlantic was entitled to criticise the FBI’s leadership, it crossed a legal boundary by publishing an article

replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office

.

The lawsuit further alleges that The Atlantic ignored denials issued by the FBI and did not respond to a Friday letter from Patel’s lawyer, Jesse Binnall, sent to senior editors and the magazine’s legal department. According to the complaint, the letter requested more time to rebut 19 allegations that the reporter had told the FBI press office she intended to publish. Reuters said it could not establish how, or whether, The Atlantic responded to that request.

The complaint also says the publication acted with actual malice, the legal standard public figures must meet in defamation cases by showing that a publisher knowingly printed false information or recklessly disregarded doubts about its truth. The lawsuit states:

defendants’ conscious decision to ignore the detailed, specific, and substantive refutations in the Pre-Publication Letter, and their refusal to give a reasonable amount of time for the FBI and Director Patel to respond, is among the strongest possible evidence of actual malice.

Part of a wider pattern of media lawsuits

Reuters described the case as the latest example of a Trump administration figure suing a media organisation. It noted that a judge had earlier dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against CNN over its use of the phrase

big lie

to describe election denialism. Judges also dismissed Trump’s lawsuits against The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, although Reuters said Trump has refiled his case against The New York Times and may refile against The Wall Street Journal.

Reuters also reported that Trump has secured some settlements in other media disputes. ABC News agreed to settle one case for $15m plus $1m in legal fees, while Paramount Global agreed to pay $16m over what the Trump administration described as deceptive editing of a CBS News interview with Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent in the 2024 election.

The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick could not be immediately reached for comment, Reuters said.