William Morgan
Disputed claims about excessive drinking by FBI Director Kash Patel has led the head of federal law enforcement to file a gargantuan $250 million defamation lawsuit against a historic American magazine.
An article published in The Atlantic last Friday, titled 'The FBI Director is MIA', cited two dozen anonymous sources inside the agency that claimed Patel was prone to 'bouts of excessive drinking', and 'erratic behavior'.
The piece, which the FBI director refutes in its entirety, paints Patel as a leader who is often absent and 'known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication' at an insider club in Washington DC and in his home city of Las Vegas.
While this behavior could potentially be viewed as a violation of FBI standards of conduct, Patel has called the article a 'hit piece' and vowed to sue The Atlantic for an eye-watering sum. But he will face some major roadblocks.
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The defamation lawsuit states that 'defendants published the Article with actual malice, despite being expressly warned, hours before publication, that the central allegations were categorically false'.
It goes on to say that the magazine's 'editorial animus toward Director Patel' led to the publication of the story 'despite obvious and fatal defects in their own sourcing'. The suit also claims that The Atlantic did not grant him 'additional time' to respond.
"See you and your entire entourage of false reporting in court," Patel said on X in response to the article's publication. For its part, The Atlantic has said it will 'vigorously defend' its reporting against the 'meritless lawsuit'.
And Patel will have one of the highest bars to clear if he wants to win his $250 million defamation suit, that is, that the article was published with 'actual malice'. This would require evidence that The Atlantic had knowingly published a false story, or failed in its investigation of the facts.
Another defense in a defamation trial is that of truth, which would require The Atlantic to name its sources, or some other evidence for the claims about Patel's 'excessive drinking'.
It is not the first time that Patel has made headlines in relation to alcohol. Back in February, a video went viral of the FBI director chugging a beer with victorious Team USA athletes during hectic celebrations at the Milan Winter Olympics.
This incident was cited in 'The FBI Director is MIA', which contained claims that President Trump, who famously never drinks, was dissatisfied with Patel's conduct and called him to say so.
This has reportedly led to key administration officials 'openly discussing' replacing Patel, with Atlantic reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick telling CNN: "People close to the director have said that he himself has expressed that he believes that he is about to be fired or that is imminent."
According to her article, this fear led the FBI director to having a 'freak-out' when he experienced a technical issue while trying to access a computer system. The report claims that Patel saw this as a sign he was being fired and called his aides in a panic.
The Atlantic claims that stories about this meltdown made its way back to Washington, prompting questions to the White House about who was actually in charge of federal law enforcement.
Patel's attorney Jesse Binnall wrote on X that the article was 'categorically false and defamatory'.