The attorney for FBI Director Kash Patel fired back at The Atlantic on Monday over its effort to dismiss his defamation lawsuit against the magazine.
Patel filed a $250 million suit in April accusing The Atlantic and its staff writer Sarah Fitzpatrick of publishing a "defamatory hit piece," outlining claims of drunken behavior as the FBI chief, which he has denied.
The Atlantic both filed a motion to dismiss the suit and a motion to stay discovery on Monday "except Touhy requests" in the U.S. District Court for Washington, D.C. Touhy requests seek "any official information for litigation purposes, including witnesses and documents, when the Government is not a party to the litigation," according to a definition shared by Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General.
"It’s truly incredible that The Atlantic wants one-sided discovery so that it can shield its own so-called 'sources' while being able to rummage through government documents unimpeded," Patel's attorney Jesse Binnall told Fox News Digital. "This again shows that they are afraid of the truth and believe they are above the law."
"We intend to prove them wrong and bring accountability to the fake news," Binnall added.
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The filing said Patel "brings this defamation action against The Atlantic for publishing an undeniably newsworthy article about his job performance that he finds politically inconvenient." It also calls out the FBI director's other defamation lawsuits against other outlets, claiming he "sends an ominous message to the press: publishing reporting that he does not like comes at a high cost," adding, "These tactics strike at the very foundation of the First Amendment."
"The Motion to Dismiss filed today by The Atlantic explains why this lawsuit is meritless and should be dismissed as a matter of law," The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in a statement. "We are simultaneously asking the court to permit us to begin seeking factual discovery from the FBI and the Department of Justice – including documents and depositions of key individuals – that is appropriate given the allegations in this matter."
Goldberg continued, "If Director Patel did not want to face this process, he should not have filed this suit. These legal filings are consistent with the promise I made to our staff and to our readers in May: we will defend The Atlantic and its staff vigorously; we will not be intimidated by acts of politically motivated retaliation; we will continue to cover the FBI professionally, fairly, and thoroughly; and we will continue to practice journalism in the public interest."
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The FBI's rapid response team on X issued a statement slamming The Atlantic for "propagating false narratives because it has zero interest in any form of real journalism" and that it "adds no value to society except as the leading slop rag of the day."
The Atlantic's story, "The FBI Director is MIA," outlined several serious allegations, including instances of erratic behavior, "excessive drinking" and "unexplained absences."
The first claim alleged Patel had a "freak-out" over a tech issue in April when attempting to log into a computer system, believing he was being fired by President Donald Trump after Attorney General Pam Bondi's ouster and had to prepare an announcement. The Atlantic cited nine unnamed sources familiar with the alleged incident.
"But Patel, according to multiple current officials, as well as former officials who have stayed close to him, is deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy. He has good reasons to think so — including some having to do with what witnesses described to me as bouts of excessive drinking," Fitzpatrick told readers before citing past reports of rumors that Patel was also on the chopping block.
"The IT-lockout episode is emblematic of Patel’s tumultuous tenure as director of the FBI: He is erratic, suspicious of others, and prone to jumping to conclusions before he has necessary evidence, according to the more than two dozen people I interviewed about Patel’s conduct, including current and former FBI officials, staff at law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, hospitality-industry workers, members of Congress, political operatives, lobbyists, and former advisers," Fitzpatrick wrote.
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The report alleged that Patel has a pattern of "conspicuous inebriation" and that "he is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication" in spots in Washington, D.C., and Las Vegas. The report also alleged that early in his tenure, some meetings and briefings had to be pushed to later in the day as a "result of his alcohol-fueled nights."
"On multiple occasions in the past year, members of his security detail had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to information supplied to Justice Department and White House officials," the report alleged.
Unnamed sources also speculated whether Patel's alcohol consumption played a role in his social media posts that shared inaccurate information about active law enforcement investigations, including what he had written after Charlie Kirk's assassination before suspect Tyler Robinson turned himself in last September.
The FBI forcefully pushed back against the report, and multiple members of the Trump administration, including White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, expressed their support for Patel.
"Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court — bring your checkbook," Patel told The Atlantic in a statement included in the report.
