The F.B.I. director Kash Patel sued The Atlantic for defamation on Monday, over an article that claimed that his excessive drinking and unexplained absences were putting his job in jeopardy.
The article, under the headline “The FBI Director Is MIA,” was published on Friday and detailed Mr. Patel’s behavior in his role leading the F.B.I., citing more than two dozen anonymous sources. The author, Sarah Fitzpatrick, wrote that Mr. Patel’s conduct had “often alarmed officials at the F.B.I. and the Department of Justice.” The article said he “has also earned a reputation for acting impulsively during high-stakes investigations.”
Mr. Patel denied the claims in a statement to The Atlantic, which was included in the article. He immediately began threatening a lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against both The Atlantic and Ms. Fitzpatrick. The suit seeks $250 million in damages.
In his complaint, Mr. Patel accused the defendants of “publishing an article replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office.” Mr. Patel also said in the suit that The Atlantic had published the article “despite being expressly warned, hours before publication, that the central allegations were categorically false.”
A spokeswoman for the The Atlantic said publication stood by its reporting. “We will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” she said in a statement on Monday.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series from the Trump administration against media outlets over unfavorable reporting. Last week, a federal judge dismissed President Trump’s complaint against The Wall Street Journal over a birthday message to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, though Mr. Trump may refile that suit. The president has also filed lawsuits in recent months against The New York Times, the BBC, CNN and The Des Moines Register.
