FBI Director Kash Patel and the Atlantic remain tangled in a bruising battle over the outlet’s allegations that he abused alcohol on the job, nearly three weeks after its report on the topic triggered a public debacle in Washington.
The claims that Patel showed up to work inebriated, among other accusations, have sparked a dramatic back-and-forth between the FBI director and the outlet, as both sides appear to dig in their heels for the long haul.
What sparked the allegations?
The saga was provoked on April 17, when the Atlantic published a report alleging Patel had been heavily drinking in Washington and Las Vegas, negatively affecting his job performance.
Reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick’s piece was based on over two dozen anonymous sources, who viewed Patel’s “tenure as a management failure and his personal behavior as a national-security vulnerability,” according to the outlet. The report alleged that at times, Patel’s early meetings had been rescheduled due to “alcohol-fueled nights” and that he was frequently unavailable.
Though the article has been firmly rebuffed by the Trump administration, the Atlantic has refused to retreat, instead publishing a new report on Wednesday stating it is “not unusual” for Patel to travel with a supply of personalized, branded bourbon and hand it out to FBI staff. The report relied on eight anonymous sources, who claimed Patel distributed his personalized whiskey to associates while on official business, including during at least one FBI event.
What was Patel’s response?
Patel filed a $250 million lawsuit against the Atlantic and Fitzpatrick on April 20, after categorically denying any claims that he abused alcohol or that drinking affected his performance at the FBI.
He said Fitzpatrick failed to include in her April 17 reporting responses he sent her before the story came out, which he said indicated the claims are false. The FBI director’s legal team said the outlet met the additional standard of “actual malice” by allegedly failing to adequately consider a prepublication letter sent by Patel’s attorney, Jesse Binnall.
In retaliation, the FBI reportedly launched a criminal leak investigation that focuses on Fitzpatrick, according to MS Now.
The agency rejected that report on Wednesday, saying reports about a criminal leak investigation are “completely false.”
“No such investigation like this exists, and the reporter you mention is not being investigated at all,” FBI spokesman Ben Williamson said. “Every time there’s a publication of false claims by anonymous sources that gets called out, the media plays the victim via investigations that do not exist.”
In response to the bourbon article, Williamson did not deny the reporting but dismissed insinuations that it was a problem.
“1) The reporter is not being investigated, and 2) Your story is ‘dumb’ not ‘big,’” Williamson said in a statement posted to X. “Personalized gifts like this are commonplace across government including the FBI. Here’s a branded bottle gifted by an FBI division in 2023, 2 years prior to Director Patel’s time. … I already regret wasting my time responding to these self-aggrandizing clowns. Anyway. Back to the important stuff.”
How did the Atlantic respond to the lawsuit and alleged investigation?
The outlet continued to stand by its reporting after Patel filed the lawsuit. It said it would “vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit.”
The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, vigorously condemned the report that the FBI launched a leak investigation into Fitzpatrick.
“We will have further comment when we learn more,” he told MS Now. “If true, this would be an outrageous, illegal, and dangerous attack on the free press and the First Amendment. We will defend Sarah and all of our reporters who are subjected to government harassment simply for pursuing the truth.”
Has Patel faced any repercussions?
The FBI director has faced intense scrutiny from those on the Left due to rumors that he abused alcohol while leading the country’s federal law enforcement agency.
Last month, a group of over one dozen House Democrats sent Patel a letter demanding he answer a survey on alcohol abuse.
The survey included questions such as “how often during the last year have you failed to do what was normally expected from you because of drinking,” “how often during the last year have you needed a first drink in the morning to get yourself going after a heavy drinking session,” and “how often during the last year have you been unable to remember what happened the night before because you had been drinking?”
Meanwhile, the leftist group Democracy Forward filed a Freedom of Information Act request, asking the FBI to submit documentation of terms such as “alcohol,” “drunk,” “drinking,” “hungover,” and “inebriated.”
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Republicans have largely stood by Patel. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on April 24 that President Donald Trump “does still have confidence in the FBI director and in our law and order team to do what they’ve been doing so well over the course of the last year and a half.”
“I’ve not heard any rumors or heard any concerns,” Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) said as the allegations rolled out last month. “I think he’s executing his job brilliantly up to this point, so I don’t see why that would even be a controversial thing.”