The Atlantic is trying to persuade a judge to dismiss FBI Director Kash Patel’s defamation lawsuit seeking compensation after the news outlet published a report making controversial claims about his conduct.
Patel filed the lawsuit after the outlet accused him of excessive drinking on and off the job.
From The Hill:
The Atlantic is asking a judge to toss a lawsuit brought by FBI Director Kash Patel against the outlet over its reporting alleging excessive drinking and questioning his performance in the job.
The lawsuit, filed by Patel in April, alleges the magazine defamed him and relied on sources who were “not in a position to know the facts” and were part of an orchestrated smear campaign against him.
The Atlantic, in a statement on Monday, called Patel’s suit “meritless” and said it was asking the court to permit it to begin seeking factual discovery from the FBI and the Department of Justice — including documents and depositions of key individuals, which it called “appropriate given the allegations in this matter.”
“If Director Patel did not want to face this process, he should not have filed this suit,” the outlet’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, said. “These legal filings are consistent with the promise I made to our staff and to our readers in May: we will defend The Atlantic and its staff vigorously.”
“We will not be intimidated by acts of politically motivated retaliation; we will continue to cover the FBI professionally, fairly, and thoroughly; and we will continue to practice journalism in the public interest,” he said.
In his lawsuit, Patel claims The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick published an article full of false and made-up claims about his drinking, unexplained absences from work, panic over potentially being fired, and other types of erratic behavior.
The FBI director called the report “a sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece” that relied wholly on anonymous sources who have personal vendettas against him. The lawsuit alleges that The Atlantic ignored clear warnings from the FBI and his lawyers that the claims were totally false, and was deliberately designed to wreck his reputation and push him out of office. He is seeking $250 million in damages.
🚨 BREAKING: FBI Director Kash Patel just SUED The Atlantic for a whopping $250 MILLION DOLLARS over defamation
— QUANTUM GUARD ™️ (@QuantumGuard17) May 19, 2026
The fake news claimed he gets drunk all the time and constantly has "unexplained absences"
FAFO! Hold the fake news accountable!
"You want to attack my character?… pic.twitter.com/46595JvqXH
Fitzpatrick’s article claims that more than two dozen current and former officials described Patel’s drinking as a recurring problem that sparked concerns about his ability to carry out his duties. They claimed he often drinks to the point of obvious intoxication at the private club Ned’s in Washington, D.C., in front of White House staff, and at the Poodle Room in Las Vegas on weekends, sometimes causing early meetings and briefings to be postponed after his “alcohol-fueled nights.”
The report also claimed that on multiple occasions his security detail struggled to wake him because he seemed intoxicated, and that last year they even requested “breaching equipment” normally used by SWAT teams because he was unreachable behind locked doors.
The White House immediately denied the content of the report after it was published and Patel threatened to sue.
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