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FBI director Kash Patel has sued The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick over a story that alleged Patel has "alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences."
The defamation suit, filed Monday morning in US District Court in the District of Columbia, seeks $250 million in damages.
The Atlantic called the suit "meritless."

"We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit," a spokesperson told CNN.
Patel threatened to sue The Atlantic both before and again after the story was published last Friday. He was quoted by the magazine as saying, "I'll see you in court bring your checkbook."
Fitzpatrick said in an interview on MS NOW on Friday night, "I stand by every word of this reporting. We have excellent attorneys."
The lawsuit says statements in Fitzpatrick's article "falsely assert" that Patel "is a habitual drunk, unable to perform the duties of his office, is a threat to public safety, is vulnerable to foreign coercion, has violated DOJ ethics rules, is unreachable in emergencies, has required the deployment of 'breaching equipment' to extract him from locked rooms, allows alcohol to influence his public statements about criminal investigations, and behaves erratically in a manner that compromises national security."
The Atlantic "published these statements with actual malice," the suit states.
"Actual malice" is the high legal standard that public figures must meet to prevail in a defamation case. It means that the author either knew a claim was false or displayed "reckless disregard of whether it was false or not."
Defamation cases often fall apart because the plaintiffs fail to prove "actual malice." In this case, Patel's lawyers say The Atlantic ignored pre-publication denials, "failed to take even the most basic investigative steps" that "would have easily refuted their claims" and showed "clear editorial animus" against Patel.
Fitzpatrick wrote that she interviewed "more than two dozen people" about Patel's conduct, "including current and former FBI officials, staff at law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, hospitality-industry workers, members of Congress, political operatives, lobbyists, and former advisers."
The sources spoke on condition of anonymity "to discuss sensitive information and private conversations," and they "described Patel's tenure as a management failure and his personal behavior as a national-security vulnerability."
CNN has not independently corroborated the anecdotes reported in The Atlantic's article.

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Windy City Ag said:

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Odds are that every one of them is a deep state Democrat with an axe to grind. Legacy media loves to hide behind the cloak of anonymity to cover for their lack of actual reporting skills. It's almost a certainty that this is made up BS designed to add to the anti-Trump narrative.

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Plenty of Republicans find the guy to be unstable and incompetent.

There was a huge posse of Republicans that really wanted the Senate to reject his appointment.

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Why did they want his appointment rejected?

I really didn't know anything about him until his appointment, so any info on why would be appreciated.

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Republican former government officials urge Senate to reject Patel nomination

A group of Republican former government officials is urging senators to reject Kash Patel's nomination to lead the FBI, saying his confirmation would be "a grievous mistake."
"Confirming Patel would be a grievous mistake that would endanger the FBI's integrity and compromise its critical mission," they wrote in a letter provided to The Hill.

"The FBI is a cornerstone of our justice system, tasked with defending our nation against threats both foreign and domestic. Its director must be a person with strong ethics, sound judgment, and an unwavering commitment to enforcing the law. Kash Patel has repeatedly demonstrated that he is not this person."

The letter recaps a series of concerns about Patel, describing him as "motivated by revenge."

"Patel has said he will close FBI headquarters on his first day in office and convert it into a so-called 'Deep State museum.' He has also threatened to criminally investigate members of the J6 committee," they wrote, referring to the House select committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

"He has repeatedly vowed to go after individuals on perceived enemies lists. This is a vision of the FBI as an authoritarian weapon for pursuing his and Trump's grievances."

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Windy City Ag said:

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The Atlantic "published these statements with actual malice," the suit states.
"Actual malice" is the high legal standard that public figures must meet to prevail in a defamation case. It means that the author either knew a claim was false or displayed "reckless disregard of whether it was false or not."
Defamation cases often fall apart because the plaintiffs fail to prove "actual malice."

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I will go with the Atlantic on this one as Kash likely does not want a full vetting of his actions. The Trump WSJ suit was dismissed for no "actual malice" basis and that is probably what will happen here as well.

My favorite part of that article, by the way, was Patel forgetting how to login to his computer and immediately assuming he had been canned.

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unimboti nkum said:

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Maybe podcasters should simply have no authority over anything

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doubledog said:

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Windy City Ag said:

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The Atlantic "published these statements with actual malice," the suit states.
"Actual malice" is the high legal standard that public figures must meet to prevail in a defamation case. It means that the author either knew a claim was false or displayed "reckless disregard of whether it was false or not."
Defamation cases often fall apart because the plaintiffs fail to prove "actual malice."

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I will go with the Atlantic on this one as Kash likely does not want a full vetting of his actions. The Trump WSJ suit was dismissed for no "actual malice" basis and that is probably what will happen here as well.

My favorite part of that article, by the way, was Patel forgetting how to login to his computer and immediately assuming he had been canned.

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I would argue that "habitual drunk" is with malice.

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Gaeilge said:

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Queso1 said:

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It feels like all the cool kids were put into positions irrespective of their morality, knowledge or experience. This has resulted in a clown show equal to the crew that was previously installed based on race, gender and sexuality.

Point being is that merit doesn't matter anymore. I'm beginning to think that the only sane solution is to just not care anymore.

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Uhhhh...is it just me that is happy with these stats since Kash took over? The guy has done more in a year than Wray did in four.

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