“They were on notice that the claims were categorically false and defamatory. They published anyway, “Jesse Binnell, an attorney who is representing Patel, said on Twitter.
FBI Director Kash Patel is suing The Atlantic over a recently-published article.
The article, entitled “The FBI Director is MIA,” was published in The Atlantic last Friday. It details Patel’s behavior as FBI director and cites more than two-dozen anonymous sources. The author behind the piece, Sarah Fitzpatrick, wrote that Patel’s conduct “often alarmed officials at the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice.”
Patel, the article says, has also “earned a reputation for acting impulsively during high-stakes investigations.”
The FBI director has since issued a statement denying Fitzpatrick’s claims.
In a separate press release, the White House indicated its support for Patel, saying that he “remains a critical player in the administration’s law and order team.”
Patel threatened legal action shortly after the article was published; he quickly followed through by filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It names The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick as defendants and seeks $250 million in damages for defamation.
In court filings, attorneys for Patel accused the defendants of “publishing an article replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office.” Patel specifically addressed claims that he abuses alcohol—and often “drinks to the point of obvious intoxication”—saying he’d never visited some of the locations named in Fitzpatrick’s article.
Patel also said that The Atlantic chose to publish the article “despite being expressly warned, hours before publication, that the central allegations were categorically false.”
The lawsuit says that the FBI was given less than two hours to comment on a list of 19 claims; Patel also alleges that, when his legal counsel sent a letter refusing the claims, the Atlantic still proceeded to publication.
“They were on notice that the claims were categorically false and defamatory. They published anyway, “Jesse Binnell, an attorney who is representing Patel, said on Twitter.
The Atlantic, for its part, said that it did its due diligence by contacting the involved parties prior to publication.
“We reached out for comment to The White House, and to the Justice Department, neither of which disputed anything,” Fitzpatrick told MSNBC. “We gave multiple opportunities, including 19 detailed, detailed questions. So we stand by every word.”
The BBC notes that Fitzpatrick’s article was allegedly corroborated by interviews with “more than two dozen people.” The article also included departments from Trump administration officials and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the latter of which responded with a statement attributed to Patel. It said, “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court—bring your checkbook.”
Sources
FBI Director Kash Patel files $250m lawsuit against The Atlantic magazine
F.B.I. Director Sues The Atlantic Over Article Claiming Excessive Drinking
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