Kash Patel sues The Atlantic for $250 million over alcohol abuse claims
FBI Director Kash Patel testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, September 16, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
FBI Director Kash Patel filed a lawsuit Monday morning seeking $250 million in damages from The Atlantic magazine for alleged defamation. article alleging alcohol abuse.
Patel had promised over the weekend to sue The Atlantic over the article published on Friday.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, DC. The legal complaint names The Atlantic as a defendant, as well as the article’s author, Sarah Fitzpatrick.
It was stated that Patel’s lawsuit aims to hold the defendants responsible for a “general, malicious and slanderous attack”.
“Defendants are, of course, free to criticize FBI leadership, but they overstepped the legal limit by publishing an article filled with false and clearly fabricated allegations designed to discredit Director Patel and remove him from office,” the lawsuit alleges.
The complaint states that the magazine and Fitzpatrick published the article “with genuine malice, despite being explicitly warned hours before publication that the underlying allegations were categorically false.”
“The Atlantic’s story is a lie,” Patel said in the statement made by his lawyers.
“They were given the facts before they were published and they still chose to print the lies,” Patel said. “I took this job to protect the American people, and this FBI has achieved the most efficient reduction in crime in U.S. history. Fake news will not report it, and their toxicity will never erode or stop our Mission.”
“We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel and will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” The Atlantic said in a statement to CNBC. he said.
Public figures like Patel have a high legal hurdle in lawsuits alleging defamation.
Supreme Court, New York Times Company v. In his landmark 1964 decision in the case known as Sullivan, he said that to win a libel claim, a public figure must show that the publisher acted with actual malice.
In this opinion, the court defined actual bad faith as “making a statement knowing it is false or recklessly disregarding whether it is false.”
This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.
