FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit Monday against The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick, days after the magazine published an investigation alleging he drinks to the point of incapacitation on the job and poses a risk to national security.
The 19-page complaint, filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia, names Fitzpatrick as a co-defendant alongside the publication and lists 17 specific allegations Patel’s legal team claims are false. Patel filed as a private citizen and Nevada resident, not in his capacity as FBI director.
His attorneys allege The Atlantic published a “sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece” and argue actual malice on the basis that the magazine received a pre-publication warning that the central claims were “categorically false” yet published anyway.
The April 17 article, sourced from more than two dozen current and former FBI officials, alleged Patel drinks to obvious intoxication at Washington private club Ned’s and The Poodle Room in Las Vegas, that early-day briefings had to be pushed back to accommodate his recovery from late nights, and that his security detail had difficulty waking him on multiple occasions.
In one episode, a request for “breaching equipment” — tools normally used by SWAT teams — was made because Patel was unreachable behind locked doors. The complaint also alleges The Atlantic falsely claimed Patel fired members of a counterintelligence squad partly devoted to Iran surveillance in the days before the US launched its war with Tehran — one of the more pointed national security allegations in the filing.
The lawsuit directly addresses one of the article’s opening anecdotes: that Patel panicked on April 10 after being locked out of an internal computer system, calling aides believing he had been fired. Patel’s lawyers describe the incident as a standard IT login issue that cleared up without incident.
The Atlantic called the suit “meritless.” “We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” a spokesperson said. Fitzpatrick has separately said she stands by “every word.”
First Amendment lawyer Adam Steinbaugh of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression offered a blunt assessment: “Patel said proving actual malice is a ‘lay up’ (no), but the allegations in this complaint don’t even hit the backboard.” Steinbaugh added the suit would nonetheless accomplish a secondary goal — deterring newsrooms from pursuing similar investigations by forcing them to absorb the legal costs of defending against it.
Public figures face the “actual malice” standard under the Supreme Court’s 1964 ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan, meaning The Atlantic would only lose if it published knowing the claims were false or with reckless disregard for their truth — a historically high bar.
The DOJ’s ethics handbook prohibits employees from “habitually using alcohol or other intoxicants to excess,” and its inspector general has noted that drinking beyond the workplace can expose officials to coercion or exploitation by foreign adversaries.
The White House defended Patel, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying he “remains a critical player on the Administration’s law and order team.” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche called the article an “anonymously sourced hit piece.”
This is Patel’s second defamation suit against a media outlet over drinking allegations — he previously sued MSNBC analyst and former FBI agent Frank Figliuzzi over a claim that his nightlife appearances were outpacing his time at the bureau. Officials separately told CNN that White House staff are “openly discussing” who will replace him as FBI director.
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