Kash Patel sues magazine for $250 million over ‘false and obviously fabricated’ story

FBI Director Kash Patel.

FBI Director Kash Patel sued the The Atlantic on Monday for $250 million over a "false and fabricated" story the magazine published last week that claimed Patel is prone to frequent binges of heavy drinking and has shoddy attendance at FBI headquarters. 

Patel appeared on Fox News Sunday morning to refute the claims made in the story. He told Maria Bartiromo a lawsuit would be filed, and the 19-page suit was filed Monday in U.S. district court in Washington, D.C.

"If I'm not working, then how is it that the FBI has delivered the safest America under President Trump's leadership in the history of our country? Patel asked, referencing national crime and murder stats that have plummeted to levels not seen in 125 years. "You want to attack my character? Come at me, bring it on. I'll see you in court," Patel told Bartiromo. 

The lawsuit lists Sarah Fitzpatrick, the reporter who wrote the story, as one of the defendants. It also outlines 17 claims made in the story, all of which were attributed to anonymous sources, which lawyers for Patel say were "false and defamatory," including claims that Patel often drinks to excess, that his attendance at headquarters or field offices is spotty and that he has targeted political adversaries of Trump. The claims "are so demonstrably and obviously false, or easily refuted, that it was at best reckless to publish them," the lawsuit says. 

Indeed, Patel last week posted a screenshot on X of an email FBI assistant director of public affairs Benjamin Williamson sent to the article's author saying, "Top to bottom, this is one of the most absurd things I've ever read." Fitzpatrick has said she stands by the story. 

Dan Bongino, who was Patel's deputy at the FBI for nearly a year, weighed in on the lawsuit Monday morning. Bongino said that he was working closely with Patel throughout the transition and almost all of the first year of Trump's presidency. "If any of that was true," I would've heard about it, Bongino said, describing the claims made in the story as "B.S."

"We have to fight back against the fake news," Patel said during his appearance on Fox News. "It's one of the many things President Trump is so successful at leading out on, because no one is attacked as baselessly as he is."

Below, watch Patel's appearance with Maria Bartiromo.