FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic on Monday, claiming the magazine’s recent exposé on his time as agency director was a malicious “hit piece.”
The piece, published by the outlet last week, painted Patel’s tenure as run through with extended, “unexplained absences.” Citing interviews with dozens of FBI insiders, reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick called the director “erratic, suspicious of others, and prone to jumping to conclusions before he has necessary evidence” and shared that his “drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government.”
Patel threatened to sue The Atlantic over the claims prior to the article’s publication, daring the magazine to “print it” in a statement that was included in the final story.
“All false, I’ll see you in court—bring your checkbook,” he said.
Patel’s defamation suit accuses The Atlantic of “actual malice,” a legal test that needs to be met for public officials to successfully prove they’ve been libeled. That notoriously difficult standard requires the plaintiff to show that the publisher knew its claims were false or acted with a reckless disregard for the truth. The lawsuit claims The Atlantic went ahead with their story “despite being expressly warned, hours before publication, that the central allegations were categorically false” and “despite having abundant publicly available information contradicting those allegations.”
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“Defendants are of course free to criticize the leadership of the FBI, but they crossed the legal line by publishing an article replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office,” the lawsuit states.
The Atlantic defended their reporting in a statement to the New York Times, calling Patel’s complaint “meritless.”
