FBI Director Kash Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick following the publication of an article on Friday alleging the director had a drinking problem that could pose a threat \u200bto national security.<\/p>\n
The magazine\u2019s story, initially titled \u201cKash Patel\u2019s Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job,\u201d cited more than two dozen anonymous sources expressing concern about Patel\u2019s \u201cconspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences\u201d that \u201calarmed officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
The article, which the Atlantic subsequently titled \u201cThe FBI Director Is MIA\u201d in its online version, reported that during Patel\u2019s tenure, the FBI had to reschedule early meetings \u201cas a result of his alcohol-fueled nights\u201d and that Patel \u201cis often away or unreachable, delaying time-sensitive decisions needed to advance investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Atlantic\u2019s story, the White House, the Department of Justice and Patel denied the allegations. The article included a statement from the FBI attributed to Patel, \u201cPrint it, all false, I\u2019ll see you in court\u2014 bring your checkbook.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Atlantic\u2019s story is a lie,\u201d Patel said in an interview with Reuters. \u201cThey were given the truth before they \u200cpublished, and they chose to \u200cprint falsehoods anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously \u200bdefend \u200cthe Atlantic \u2060and \u200bour \u2060journalists against this meritless lawsuit,\u201d the Atlantic said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Reuters could not independently establish the accuracy of the article or why the publication changed the title.<\/p>\n
Patel\u2019s complaint says that while the Atlantic is free to criticize the leadership of the FBI, \u201cthey crossed the legal line\u201d by publishing an article \u201creplete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel\u2019s reputation and drive him from office.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, filed in US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks $250 million in damages.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit alleges the Atlantic ignored the FBI\u2019s denials and did not respond to a Friday letter from Patel\u2019s lawyer Jesse Binnall to senior editors and the Atlantic\u2019s legal department asking for more time to refute the 19 allegations the reporter told the \u2060FBI\u2019s press office she would be publishing.<\/p>\n
The letter, which Reuters has seen, was sent shortly before 4 \u200cp.m. on Friday and the Atlantic published the story at 6:20 p.m., according to \u200cthe complaint. Reuters could not establish how or if the Atlantic responded to Binnall\u2019s \u200brequest.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit alleges the publication acted with \u201cactual malice,\u201d a legal standard \u200cthat requires public figures such as Patel to show the publisher knowingly printed false information or recklessly ignored doubts about its accuracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefendants\u2019 \u200cconscious decision to ignore the detailed, specific, and substantive refutations in the Pre-Publication Letter, and their refusal to give a reasonable amount of time for the FBI and Director Patel to respond, is among the strongest possible evidence of actual malice,\u201d the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court has set a high bar for defamation claims that requires a public figure like Patel to prove that the Atlantic, or its reporter, knew its reporting was false and published it anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a \u200cheavy hill to climb to prove actual malice,\u201d said Deanna Shullman, a media lawyer with Shullman Fugate PLLC in Florida, adding that she believes the lawsuit has little chance of succeeding. \u201cA failure to \u2060obtain comment from the other \u2060side alone is not sufficient to establish actual malice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Binnall is a prominent Republican attorney who has represented US President Donald Trump in numerous civil cases including one brought by US Capitol Police officers over his role in the January 6 riots. He represented Trump\u2019s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., former national security adviser Mike Flynn, and ran Trump\u2019s challenge to Nevada\u2019s 2020 election results.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit is the latest instance of a Trump administration figure suing a media outlet. A judge dismissed Trump\u2019s lawsuit against CNN for describing election denialism as \u201cthe big lie.\u201d Judges also dismissed Trump\u2019s lawsuits against the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Trump has refiled his lawsuit against the New York Times and may refile against the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n
He has also secured some settlements. ABC News agreed to settle a case for $15 million plus $1 million in legal fees. Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to settle a dispute over what the Trump administration called \u201cdeceptive editing\u201d of a CBS News interview with his opponent in the 2024 election, Kamala Harris.<\/p>\n
Dan Bongino, who served as deputy director of the FBI until January, told Reuters he \u200bnever knew Patel not to be reachable, one allegation in the \u200bAtlantic story. \u201cIf you could not get in touch with Kash as alleged in the report who do you reach out to? Well you reach out to the deputy and that\u2019s me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FBI Director Kash Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic and its reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick following the publication of an article on Friday alleging the director had a drinking problem that could pose a threat \u200bto national security. The magazine\u2019s story, initially titled \u201cKash Patel\u2019s Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job,\u201d cited more …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":96663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96649"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96664,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96649\/revisions\/96664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}