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FBI Director Kash Patel bashes media over Atlantic story, threatens lawsuit

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by Sophie Brams - 04/18/26 4:46 PM ET

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by Sophie Brams - 04/18/26 4:46 PM ET

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FBI Director Kash Patel has threatened to sue The Atlantic after the magazine reported that his colleagues have grown alarmed by what it described as episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.

“See you and your entire entourage of false reporting in court… But do keep at it with the fake news, actual malice standard is now what some would call a legal lay up,” Patel wrote on the social platform X late Friday night.

The magazine published a story on Friday titled “The FBI Director Is MIA,” citing conversations with more than two dozen people, including current and former FBI officials, members of Congress, hospitality-industry workers and others.

“Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information and private conversations, they described Patel’s tenure as a management failure and his personal behavior as a national-security vulnerability,” reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick wrote.

The report stated that Patel has been known “to drink to the point of obvious intoxication” in front of White House and other Trump administration staff and that on multiple occasions within the past year, “members of his security detail had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated.”

Officials were cited saying that the FBI director had been “an irregular presence” at the agency’s headquarters and was “often away or unreachable.”

Fitzpatrick also wrote that Patel “became convinced that he had been locked out” after struggling to log into an internal computer system earlier this month and “panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House,” citing nine people familiar with his outreach, two of whom described it as a “freak-out.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche both defended Patel in statements to The Atlantic, with Blanche saying that the FBI director “has accomplished more in 14 months than the previous administration did in four years.”

The magazine also published an FBI statement attributed to Patel that read: “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court—bring your checkbook.”

Jesse Binnall, a lawyer representing Patel, posted a letter on X on Friday night that he said was sent to The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick, denying the allegations and threatening legal action.

“They were on notice that the claims were categorically false and defamatory,” Binnall wrote. “They published anyway.”

Fitzpatrick defended her reporting during a Friday night appearance on MS NOW, saying: “I stand by every word.”

“These are not the types of people who are willing to speak out outside of the FBI, especially right now, because Kash Patel is going after people with polygraphs in a way that has never happened at the Bureau,” she told host Jen Psaki. “So for it to be this level of alarm, this is people genuinely concerned that America is a danger as a result of this conduct, and I feel, you know, a real responsibility to take care of that reporting incredibly carefully.”

Patel has come under scrutiny before for his alleged use of government-owned private jets for personal travel and a viral video showing him partying and chugging beers with players in the Team USA locker room following their victory against Canada on the final day of the Winter Olympics.

The FBI director slammed the media in an X post on Saturday for publishing what he called “hit piece lies” on him.

“Memo to the fake news – the only time I’ll ever actually be concerned about the hit piece lies you write about me will be when you stop,” Patel wrote. “Keep talking, it means I’m doing exactly what I should be doing. And no amount of BS you write will ever deter this FBI from making America safe again and taking down the criminals you love.”

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