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FBI Director Kash Patel has filed a defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic newspaper and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick after an article on Friday alleged that the director had a drinking problem that could pose a threat to national security.
The magazine's article, originally titled "Kash Patel's Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job," cited more than two dozen anonymous sources expressing concern about Patel's "obvious intoxication and unexplained absences" that "alarmed officials at the FBI and the Justice Department."
The article, which the Atlantic later titled “FBI Director Is MIA” in its online version, reported that during Patel’s tenure, the FBI had to reschedule early meetings “as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights” and that Patel “is often away or unreachable, delaying decisions needed to move investigations forward.”
In the Atlantic article, the White House, the Justice Department, and Patel denied the allegations. The article included a statement from the FBI attributed to Patel, "Publish it, all false, see you in court, bring your checkbook."
" The Atlantic story is a lie. They were given the truth before they published it, and they chose to publish the lies anyway," Patel said in an interview with Reuters.
"We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel ," Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in a statement to CNBC, after Patel threatened to sue the publication on Sunday in an appearance on Fox News.
Reuters could not independently determine the accuracy of the Atlantic article or why the publication changed the headline. The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick could not immediately be reached for comment.
Patel's lawsuit says that, while the Atlantic is free to criticize FBI leadership, "they crossed a legal line" by publishing an article filled with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel's reputation and remove him from office.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks $250 million in damages. The lawsuit alleges that the Atlantic ignored the FBI's denials and failed to respond to a letter Friday from Patel's attorney, Jesse Binnall, to the Atlantic's senior editors and legal department, asking for more time to rebut the 19 allegations that the journalist told the FBI press office she would publish.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of cases involving a Trump administration figure suing a media outlet. A judge dismissed Trump's lawsuit against CNN for describing its election denial as a "big lie."
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