Attorneys representing the FBI Director have called The Atlantic’s piece on Patel a “sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece”, NBC reported.
The article, which The Atlantic titled “The FBI Director Is MIA”, reported that during Patel’s tenure, the FBI has had to reschedule early meetings due to “his alcohol-fuelled nights” and claimed Patel “is often away or unreachable, delaying time-sensitive decisions needed to advance investigations”.
The piece also included a quote attributed to Patel, “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court—bring your checkbook.”
What Kash Patel’s lawsuit says
In a lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, attorneys confirmed that Patel had been locked out of the bureau’s computer system on April 10, as stated in The Atlantic piece, but called it a “routine technical problem” that was solved quickly.
The lawsuit also denied that the FBI Director had panicked over the incident, denying the claims made in the magazine. Refuting all rumours of Patel’s absences, the lawsuit said, he is “at FBI headquarters nearly every single day, and when he is not at headquarters, he is visiting field offices — which he has done more frequently than any of his predecessors, a fact independently verifiable through his public social media account that defendants were specifically directed to review.”
The lawsuit also alleged that The Atlantic ignored the FBI’s denials and did not respond to a Friday letter from Jesse Binnall, Patel’s lawyer, to senior editors and the magazine’s legal department asking for more time to refute the allegations the reporter told the bureau she would be publishing, a report by Al-Jazeera stated.
The Atlantic, on its part, has said that it stands by its reporting and would vigorously defend itself against the “meritless lawsuit.”
Kash Patel gets into shouting match with reporter
At his first public appearance following the piece, Patel got into a heated argument with a reporter at the Justice Department press corps. When asked about being locked out of the FBI systems temporarily, Patel exploded at NBC journalist Ryan Reilly, The Hill reported. The FBI chief called the question “off topic” and denied the incident had ever taken place.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche also intervened in the matter and told Reilly he was being ‘extraordinarily rude’ to Patel.
