FBI Director Kash Patel Sues The Atlantic Over Story About Erratic Tenure

FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation suit against The Atlantic and writer Sarah Fitzpatrick on Monday, claiming a piece chronicling his tenure at the agency was a “sweeping, malicious and defamatory hit piece.”

The story chronicled concerns among unnamed current and former FBI employees that Patel’s tenure has been erratic and has included excessive drinking.

In his lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., Patel’s legal team wrote that The Atlantic’s journalists “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. Indeed, Fitzpatrick could not get a single person to go on the record in defense of these outrageous allegations, instead relying entirely on anonymous sources she knew to be both highly partisan with an ax to grind and also not in a position to know the facts.”

A spokesperson for The Atlantic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

More to come.