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LetMyPeopleVote

(181,602 posts) Mon Apr 20, 2026, 10:36 AM Apr 20

FBI Director Kash Patel sues the Atlantic claiming false reporting about drinking, absences

Source: Reuters

April 20 (Reuters) - FBI Director Kash Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick following the publication of an article on Friday alleging the director had a drinking problem that could pose a threat to national ‌security.

The magazine's story, initially titled “Kash Patel's Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job," cited more than two dozen anonymous sources expressing concern at Patel’s “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” that “alarmed officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice."

The article, which the Atlantic subsequently titled “The 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 time-sensitive decisions needed to advance investigations.”

In the Atlantic's story, the White House, the Department of Justice and Patel denied the allegations. The article included ⁠a statement from the FBI attributed to Patel, “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court—bring your checkbook.”

“The Atlantic's story is a lie,” Patel said in an interview with Reuters. “They were given the truth before they published, and they chose to print falsehoods anyway.”

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/fbi-director-kash-patel-sues-atlantic-court-records-show-2026-04-20/

18 replies

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FBI Director Kash Patel sues the Atlantic claiming false reporting about drinking, absences (Original Post) LetMyPeopleVote Apr 20 OP

This message was self-deleted by its author wcmagumba Apr 20 #1

Kash Patel files $250 million defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic LetMyPeopleVote Apr 20 #2

It isn't "malice" to run a story if you have multiple witnesses versus one denial. highplainsdem Apr 20 #3

Discovery and depositions.. can't wait! agingdem Apr 20 #4

Discovery... Mz Pip Apr 20 #5

Let's see his credit card receipts. C_U_L8R Apr 20 #6

Charged and paid by US taxpayers?? I assume but could be wrong. riversedge Apr 20 #7

MaddowBlog-Confronting ugly allegations, FBI Director Kash Patel files new $250 million lawsuit LetMyPeopleVote Apr 20 #8

He thinks he'll win that in court? What a putz! It's just going to publicize his humiliation. Martin68 Apr 20 #9

Kash can't frantically kiss enough butt for this GenThePerservering Apr 20 #10

Kash likes to party and everyone knows it... wcmagumba Apr 20 #11

BS suit to make his BS denial look legit JoseBalow Apr 20 #12

Thinks he can pull a Trump and bank big. Not going to happen Yap. Bengus81 Apr 20 #13

Who's paying his lawyers? bluestarone Apr 20 #14

He will go the way of every single l'orange appointee before him truthisfreedom Apr 20 #15

Probably but.. agingdem Apr 21 #16

Typos Spotted in FBI Director Kash Patel's Lawsuit on Inaccuracies LetMyPeopleVote Apr 21 #17

MaddowBlog-House Democrats launch Patel probe, demand he submit to alcohol abuse screening LetMyPeopleVote Apr 22 #18

Response to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

wcmagumba This message was self-deleted by its author.

LetMyPeopleVote

(181,602 posts)

2. Kash Patel files $250 million defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 10:47 AM

Apr 20

FLASH: Kash Patel files 0 million defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic

Patel claims "Defendants published the Article w/ actual malice, despite being expressly warned, hours before publication, that the central allegations were categorically false"

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
— Scott MacFarlane (@macfarlanenews.bsky.social) 2026-04-20T14:14:47.458Z

highplainsdem

(62,923 posts)

3. It isn't "malice" to run a story if you have multiple witnesses versus one denial.

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Reply #2)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 10:57 AM

Apr 20

agingdem

(8,946 posts)

4. Discovery and depositions.. can't wait!

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 11:04 AM

Apr 20

Trump isn’t going to fire him.. his cabinet and his inner circle consists of grifters, self dealers, warmongers, adulterers, abusers, drunks, corrupt billionaires,, racists, ex-cons, predators, Nazi acolytes, and ass-kissers.. Kash is just one of the guys..

Mz Pip

(28,499 posts)

5. Discovery...

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 11:09 AM

Apr 20

should be interesting.

C_U_L8R

(49,506 posts)

6. Let's see his credit card receipts.

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 11:34 AM

Apr 20

There are bound to be some gigantic bar tabs.

riversedge

(81,445 posts)

7. Charged and paid by US taxpayers?? I assume but could be wrong.

Reply to C_U_L8R (Reply #6)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 11:39 AM

Apr 20

LetMyPeopleVote

(181,602 posts)

8. MaddowBlog-Confronting ugly allegations, FBI Director Kash Patel files new $250 million lawsuit

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 12:03 PM

Apr 20

The Atlantic reported that FBI personnel have expressed concerns about the director’s unexplained absences and excessive drinking. He sued a few days later.

Link to tweet

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/patel-lawsuit-the-atlantic-fbi-report

FBI Director Kash Patel, last seen by much of the public partying with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team after they won the gold in February, has struggled badly for much of his tenure. But The Atlantic cast Patel’s troubles in a new light with a brutal new report on Friday, alleging that FBI personnel have expressed concerns about the director’s unexplained absences and excessive drinking, which have alarmed colleagues and his security detail.....

Patel and his lawyer wasted little time in condemning the reporting as “false” and vowing to file a lawsuit against the publication and the award-winning reporter who wrote the story, Sarah Fitzpatrick.

On Monday morning, he did exactly that, filing a $250 million defamation lawsuit.....

When host Maria Bartiromo asked, for example, for his response to allegations that he has a drinking problem, Patel didn’t answer directly, though his response heralded “President Trump’s brilliant leadership.”

BARTIROMO: The Atlantic alleges you have a drinking problem. What's your response?

KASH PATEL: The results speak for the themselves. If the fake news mafia isn't hitting you personally w/baseless information, then you're not doing your job. This FBI under President Trump's brilliant leadership ...
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-04-19T14:34:21.506Z

As part of the same interview, the FBI director went on to claim that the bureau has “information” that bolsters Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, adding, “We are going to be making arrests. And it’s coming, and I promise you, it’s coming soon.”

In reality, there is no evidence to support of the president’s discredited conspiracy theories — he lost in 2020, fair and square — as Patel likely knows. But if The Atlantic’s reporting is correct, and the director is “deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy,” he also likely knows that there’s no better way to bolster his job security than going on Fox News and vowing to arrest the president’s perceived political enemies while defending Trump’s weird claims about his 2020 defeat.

Discovery in this case will be fun

Martin68

(28,040 posts)

9. He thinks he'll win that in court? What a putz! It's just going to publicize his humiliation.

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 12:24 PM

Apr 20

GenThePerservering

(3,628 posts)

10. Kash can't frantically kiss enough butt for this

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 01:21 PM

Apr 20

if Dump decides he's going to embarrass his regime, out Kash goes, just like Noem.

Discovery should be fun, particularly since there have long been reports that he doesn't show up at the office, and is too busy clubbing.

wcmagumba

(6,565 posts)

11. Kash likes to party and everyone knows it...

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 01:23 PM

Apr 20

JoseBalow

(9,678 posts)

12. BS suit to make his BS denial look legit

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 03:02 PM

Apr 20

He'll drop it before he perjures himself, this is just for show.

Bengus81

(10,340 posts)

13. Thinks he can pull a Trump and bank big. Not going to happen Yap.

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 04:51 PM

Apr 20

bluestarone

(22,420 posts)

14. Who's paying his lawyers?

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 04:54 PM

Apr 20

I really wish this hearing coming up was public. Jesus Christ, what a FN IDIOT!!!

truthisfreedom

(23,540 posts)

15. He will go the way of every single l'orange appointee before him

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Mon Apr 20, 2026, 04:56 PM

Apr 20

directly into the dustbin of history.

agingdem

(8,946 posts)

16. Probably but..

Reply to truthisfreedom (Reply #15)

Tue Apr 21, 2026, 05:42 AM

Apr 21

in 2020 Kash Patel was Trump’s designated representative to the National Archives to handle presidential records.. he was identified as assisting Trump in moving/storing/concealing government records…and unlike Bondi and Noem who were disposable hangers-on, Kash is deeply invested in Donnie’s sordid history of crime and corruption ..Kash may not be that easy to flush down Trump’s gold toilet….more than likely he would have to resign and then return to Trump’s orbit as a “top advisor”..

LetMyPeopleVote

(181,602 posts)

17. Typos Spotted in FBI Director Kash Patel's Lawsuit on Inaccuracies

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Tue Apr 21, 2026, 08:41 PM

Apr 21

This lawsuit is pure crap and will not survive a motion to dismiss. The section on actual malice is truly sad. The typos are simply amusing and show that this lawsuit was not filed by a competent law firm

Link to tweet

https://www.newsweek.com/typos-fbi-director-kash-patel-19-page-lawsuit-11856767

A defamation lawsuit filed this week by FBI Director Kash Patel against The Atlantic contains multiple spelling and copy‑editing errors, including misspelled words and formatting inconsistencies in passages sharply criticizing the magazine’s journalistic standards.

The 19‑page complaint, filed Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C., accuses The Atlantic and one of its reporters of knowingly publishing false and defamatory claims.

But a close review of the lawsuit itself reveals several basic errors in spelling.

Newsweek reached out to the legal team behind the filing, Binnall Law Group, via email for comment.....

The 19-page complaint contains several clear spelling mistakes, including:

"feable" instead of "feeble," used to describe what the lawsuit calls The Atlantic’s attempt to downplay partisan animus.
"politices" instead of "policies," in a passage accusing the magazine of ignoring its own editorial rules.
"dicussed" in place of "discussed."

None of the errors affects the substance of the allegations, which claim that The Atlantic relied on anonymous sources to publish false assertions about Patel’s behavior, alcohol use and job performance—claims that the lawsuit says were explicitly denied before publication by the FBI, the Justice Department and the White House.

LetMyPeopleVote

(181,602 posts)

18. MaddowBlog-House Democrats launch Patel probe, demand he submit to alcohol abuse screening

Reply to LetMyPeopleVote (Original post)

Wed Apr 22, 2026, 12:35 PM

Apr 22

If the beleaguered FBI director was hoping the allegations about his alleged drinking problem would be a one-day story, he has reason to be disappointed.

I have a hunch Kash Patel wonâ€™t like the fact that House Democrats are demanding that he submit to alcohol abuse screening.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-04-22T14:29:16.781Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/house-democrats-launch-patel-probe-demand-he-submit-to-alcohol-abuse-screening

A day later, House Democrats went noticeably further. On Tuesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, not only announced a new investigation into Patel, but the Maryland Democrat and his partisan colleagues also demanded that Patel submit to an alcohol abuse screening. From the written correspondence sent to the bureau’s director:

For the sake of our own security, we need to know, for example, ‘how many drinks containing alcohol do you have on a typical day when you are drinking,’ ‘how often during the last year have you failed to do what was normally expected from you because of drinking,’ ‘how often during the last year have you needed a first drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session,’ and ‘how often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been drinking?’

The Judiciary Committee’s Democrats also sent a parallel letter to Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, who chairs the panel, urging additional security in light of the seriousness of the allegations.

“Given the severity of the national security risks associated with these, we request that you make clear to Director Patel that if he fails to provide the requested information by next week’s deadline, the Committee will be requiring him to appear at a hearing in person and under oath to address Members’ well-founded concerns,” they wrote.,,,,

Meanwhile, Donald Trump hasn’t exactly scrambled to defend his handpicked FBI director. In fact, the president has been conspicuously quiet about the former podcast personality of late, failing to say his name out loud or online in roughly a month.

The Atlantic’s report added that Patel is “deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy.” There’s no great mystery as to why.

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