Kash Patel has sued MSNBC columnist Frank Figliuzzi over his unverified claim last month that the FBI director had been at “nightclubs” more than he’d been in his office.
Patel filed a lawsuit on June 2 in Texas against Figliuzzi, a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI who now serves as a senior national security and intelligence analyst for MSNBC and NBC News.
The complaint accuses Figliuzzi of “fabricating a specific lie” about Patel over his nightclub allegation, and claimed there was “no basis for [the] Defendant’s fabrication, and Defendant’s use of the weasel word, ‘reportedly,’ is itself a fabrication,” according to the New York Post.
The suit called Figliuzzi’s claim a “maliciously false and defamatory statement” and accused the columnist of making up the story to “discredit Director Patel because of Defendant’s clear animus toward Director Patel.” It noted that the commentator has previously been critical of the FBI head’s qualifications.
Patel has not spent “a single minute inside of a nightclub” since becoming FBI director, the lawsuit states.
The FBI and an attorney for Patel did not immediately return The Daily Beast’s request for comment. Figliuzzi has been approached for comment via his website.
Figliuzzi, a 25-year veteran of the FBI, made the remark during a May 2 broadcast of Morning Joe. He claimed Donald Trump’s pick to lead the bureau was not often present at its headquarters, the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C.
“Reportedly, he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building,” Figliuzzi said to Morning Joe co-host Jonathan Lemire. “And there are reports that daily briefings to him have been changed from every day to maybe twice weekly.”
“The one word that keeps coming back at me from inside that building is ‘chaos,’” he added. “People don’t know what’s happening from day to day.”
On the next Morning Joe broadcast the following Monday, Lemire told viewers Figliuzzi had made a “misstatement.”
“Figliuzzi said that FBI director Kash Patel has reportedly been more visible at nightclubs than at his office at FBI headquarters. This was a misstatement. We have not verified that claim,” Lemire said.
MSNBC declined to comment on the lawsuit.
FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson wrote on X at the time that Figliuzzi’s claims were “bogus,” writing, “I see him here at HQ every day.”
Patel’s appointment was and has been the subject of significant backlash, given his limited senior law enforcement experience and concerns over his past promotion of pro-Trump conspiracy theories.
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