Oh, That's Who Wrote the Hit Piece on Kash Patel in The Atlantic?

Matt Vespa | April 20, 2026 3:45 PM

The Atlantic is being sued by FBI Director Kash Patel. They published a hit piece on the FBI chief accusing him of dereliction of duty and claiming he’s drunk all the time, among other things. It’s fitting that The Atlantic would publish this article, though many pointed out that, while rumors have circulated for years, no other DC reporter has gone with this because there’s not much substance. That could suggest that none of it is true or that it's grossly exaggerated.

Either way, the suit has been filed, but what’s even more interesting is who wrote it. It also clarifies things a bit: it’s the same woman who promoted the hoax about Brett Kavanaugh and Julie Swetnick. Our friends at Twitchy decided to remind us about that bit of history:

By the way, @S_Fitzpatrick is also the reporter who wrote the throughly debunked hit piece that claimed Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh drugged women so they could be sexually abused.

She has a history of writing hit pieces with either no sources on the record or… https://t.co/YnaE5llsJO pic.twitter.com/5HMYZVyYjl
— Megan Basham (@megbasham) April 19, 2026

The lack of accountability here is beyond absurd, but you already know that. It goes back to the Russian collusion hoax, where nobody was truly fired or ostracized for spreading false stories, and where sources were either nonexistent or discredited. The Atlantic has published fake news before, so this is just typical. Still, this lawsuit should be interesting. The discovery process is likely to be entertaining when none of this turns out to be true.