By Jana Winter
April 20 (Reuters) – FBI Director Kash Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick on Friday after it published an article alleging the director had a drinking problem that could endanger national security.
The magazine’s story, initially headlined “I wish Patel’s erratic behavior could cost him his job,” with more than two dozen anonymous sources expressing concern over Patel’s “apparent drunkenness and unexplained absences” that “concerned FBI and Justice Department officials.”
The article, which The Atlantic later titled “The FBI Director MIA” in its online edition, noted that during Patel’s tenure, the FBI had to reschedule initial meetings “as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights” and Patel was “often distant or unreachable, delaying time-sensitive decisions needed to advance investigations.”
In the Atlantic’s story, the White House, the Justice Department and Patel denied the allegations. The article included an FBI statement attributed to Patel, “Print it, all wrong, I’ll see you in court – bring your checkbook.”
“The story in The Atlantic is a lie,” Patel said in an interview with Reuters. “They were given the truth before they published it, and they chose to print the lie anyway.”
“We stand by our reporting about Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our reporters against this meritless lawsuit,” the Atlantic said in a statement.
Reuters could not independently establish the accuracy of the article or the reason the publication changed the title.
Patel’s complaint states that while The Atlantic is free to criticize FBI leadership, they “crossed the legal line by publishing an article full of false and clearly 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 The Atlantic ignored the FBI’s denials and did not respond to a Friday letter from Patel’s lawyer, Jesse Binnal, to senior editors and the Atlantic’s legal department asking for more time to refute the 19 allegations.
The letter, seen by Reuters, was sent shortly before 4 p.m. Friday and the story was published at 6:20 p.m., according to the complaint. Reuters could not establish how or if The Atlantic responded to Binnal’s request.
The lawsuit accuses the publication of acting with “actual malice,” a legal standard that requires public figures like Patel to show that the publisher knowingly printed false information or was recklessly ignorant of its accuracy.
“Defendants’ conscious decision to ignore the detailed, specific, and substantive rebuttals in the pre-publication letter, and to deny the FBI and Director Patel reasonable time to respond, is the strongest possible evidence of actual malice,” the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit is the latest example of the Trump administration suing a media outlet. A judge has dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against CNN for describing election denialism as a “big lie.” The judges also dismissed Trump’s lawsuits against The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Trump has refiled his lawsuit against the New York Times and may file again against the Wall Street Journal.
He has also secured some settlements. ABC News agreed to settle the suit for $15 million plus $1 million in legal fees. Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million for what the Trump administration called “misleading editing” of a CBS News interview with Kamala Harris, her opponent in the 2024 election.
(Reporting by Jana Winter in Washington; Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Michael Lehrmonth, Lisa Schumacher and Alistair Bell)
