FBI Director Kash Patel announced Sunday that he intends to take legal action against The Atlantic over a recent attack piece that accused him of frequent drinking on the job and unexplained absences. The director has thoroughly denied the allegations, calling them “fake news.”
The article, titled “The FBI Director Is MIA,” claimed to be based on interviews with more than two dozen anonymous sources, including current and former FBI officials, staff from law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, hospitality workers, members of Congress, political operatives, lobbyists, and former advisers.
Among the claims were episodes of excessive drinking that allegedly affected his leadership. Sources reported that Patel had been observed drinking to the point of obvious intoxication at venues including the private club Ned’s in Washington, D.C., and the Poodle Room in Las Vegas. According to “six current and former officials,” meetings and briefings were sometimes rescheduled because of alcohol-fueled nights early in his tenure.
The piece also stated that members of his security detail had difficulty waking him on multiple occasions due to apparent intoxication, and that a request was made last year for breaching equipment — typically used by SWAT and hostage-rescue teams — after Patel was unreachable behind locked doors.
None of the allegations have been verified beyond claims made by “current and former” officials.
Patel and his representatives have denied the claims in the article. Prior to publication, his attorney Jesse Binnall sent a letter to the journalist asserting that most of the substantive claims were “false, unsourced, and facially defamatory.”
After the story appeared, Patel described the report as a “hit piece” and “categorically false,” adding that he had not spent “a single minute inside of a nightclub” since becoming director.
On Sunday, Patel told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that he intends to take legal action against the outlet over what he described as a frivolous “hit piece.”
“It’s coming tomorrow,” the director told Bartiromo when asked if he intended to sue.
“Yes. Yes, I will, for defamation and because, you know what, Maria? We have to fight back against the fake news. It’s one of the many things that President Trump is so successful at in leading out on, because no one is attacked as baselessly and as much as he is. And our leaders that get attacked under his brilliant leadership must do the same,” Patel continued.
“You want to attack my character? Come at me, bring it on. I’ll see you in court.”
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