The F.B.I. director Kash Patel sued The Atlantic, accusing it of defamation on Monday over an article that claimed that his excessive drinking and unexplained absences were putting his job in jeopardy.
The article, under the headline “The FBI Director Is MIA,” was published on Friday and detailed Mr. Patel’s behavior in his role leading the F.B.I., citing more than two dozen anonymous sources. The author, Sarah Fitzpatrick, wrote that Mr. Patel’s conduct had “often alarmed officials at the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice.” The article said he “has also earned a reputation for acting impulsively during high-stakes investigations.”
Mr. Patel denied the claims in a statement to The Atlantic, which was included in the article.
The White House also denied the claims, with Karoline Leavitt, its press secretary, telling The Atlantic that “Director Patel remains a critical player on the administration’s law and order team.”
Mr. Patel immediately began threatening a lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against both The Atlantic and Ms. Fitzpatrick. The suit seeks $250 million in damages.
A spokeswoman for the The Atlantic said on Monday that the publication stood by its reporting. “We will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” she said in a statement.
In his complaint, Mr. 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.” He pushed back on allegations that he “drinks to the point of obvious intoxication” at places like the members-only clubs Ned’s in Washington and the Poodle Room in Las Vegas.
“Director Patel does not drink to excess at these establishments or anywhere else, and this has not, and has never been, a source of concern across the government,” the complaint said.
Mr. Patel also said in the suit that The Atlantic had published the article “despite being expressly warned, hours before publication, that the central allegations were categorically false.”
He said in his suit that the F.B.I. had been given less than two hours to comment on a list of 19 claims provided by The Atlantic, and that his legal counsel had sent the publication a letter refuting the claims, asking for more time to respond and demanding that the article not be published.
Mr. Patel, as a public figure, must meet a higher standard than an ordinary citizen to prove his case. He must show there were not only falsehoods in the article, but “actual malice” — a legal standard that means that the defendants published defamatory material either while knowing it was false or with reckless disregard as to its truth.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series from the Trump administration against media outlets over unfavorable reporting. Last week, a federal judge dismissed President Trump’s complaint against The Wall Street Journal over a birthday message to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, though Mr. Trump may refile that suit. The president has also filed lawsuits in recent months against The New York Times, the BBC, CNN and The Des Moines Register.
Katie Robertson covers the media industry for The Times. Email: [email protected]
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