FBI Director Kash Patel arrives to a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, DC.

• FBI Director Kash Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic.
• His lawsuit claims defamation over an article accusing him of having a drinking problem.
• The lawsuit seeks $250 million in damages.

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 to national security.

The magazine’s story, initially titled “Kash Patel’s Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job”, cited more than two ‌dozen anonymous sources expressing concern about Patel’s “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” that “alarmed officials at the FBI and the Department of Justice”.

The article, which the Atlantic subsequently titled “The FBI Director Is MIA” in its online version, reported that during Patel’s tenure, the FBI had to reschedule early meetings “as a result of his alcohol-fuelled nights” and that Patel “is often away or unreachable, delaying time-sensitive decisions needed to advance investigations”.

In the Atlantic’s story, the White House, the Department of Justice and Patel denied the allegations.

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The article included a statement from the FBI attributed to Patel: “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court - bring your chequebook.”

“The Atlantic’s story is a lie,” Patel said in an interview with Reuters.

“They were given the truth before they published, and they chose to print falsehoods anyway.”

“We stand by our reporting ⁠on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend the Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” the Atlantic said in a statement.

Reuters could not independently establish the accuracy of the article or why the publication changed the title.

Patel’s complaint says that while the Atlantic is free to criticise the leadership of the FBI, “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”.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks $250 million in damages.

The lawsuit alleges the Atlantic ignored the FBI’s denials and did not respond to a Friday letter from Patel’s lawyer Jesse Binnall to senior editors and the Atlantic’s legal department asking for more time to refute the 19 allegations the reporter told the FBI’s press office she would be publishing.

The letter, which Reuters has seen, was sent shortly before 16:00 on Friday and the Atlantic published the story at 18:20, according to the complaint.

Reuters could not establish how or if the Atlantic responded to Binnall’s request.

The lawsuit alleges the publication acted with “actual malice”, a legal standard that requires public figures such as Patel to show the publisher knowingly printed false information or recklessly ignored doubts about its ‌accuracy.

“Defendants’ conscious ⁠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,” the lawsuit says.

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.

“It’s a heavy hill to climb to prove actual malice,” said Deanna Shullman, a media lawyer with Shullman Fugate PLLC in Florida, adding that she believes the lawsuit has little chance of succeeding.

Shullman said:

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 6 January riots.

He represented Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, former national security adviser Mike Flynn, and ran Trump’s challenge to Nevada’s 2020 election results.

The lawsuit is the latest instance of a Trump administration figure suing a media outlet.

A judge dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against ⁠CNN for describing election denialism as “the big lie”.

Judges also dismissed Trump’s 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.

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 “deceptive editing” of a CBS News interview with his opponent in the 2024 election, Kamala Harris.

Dan Bongino, who served as deputy director of the FBI until January, told Reuters he never knew Patel not to be reachable, one allegation in the Atlantic story.

“If 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’s me,” he said.