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Kash Patel’s lawsuit against the Atlantic has already backfired, big time.
Had the FBI director just put out a statement denouncing the magazine’s piece on him, the controversy would have vanished in two days.
But by filing the $250-million suit against what he calls a “defamatory hit piece,” he turned it into a top story on cable news, especially MS NOW, with constant coverage all day Monday, most of it unfavorable.
In other words, Patel shined a white-hot spotlight on accusations of excessive drinking and disappearances to a vastly larger audience than would have heard about them.
FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL FILES $250 MILLION LAWSUIT AGAINST THE ATLANTIC OVER ‘DEFAMATORY HIT PIECE’
FBI Director Kash Patel’s lawsuit against The Atlantic is already backfiring. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“We will vigorously defend the Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” a magazine spokeswoman said.
While Patel is free to sue anyone he wants, there are two main reasons this is a seriously bad idea.
As a public figure, he would have to prove that the Atlantic acted with malice – that is, either knowingly publishing something false, or showing reckless disregard for whether or not it’s true. The Atlantic is a liberal magazine, but has serious reporting chops.
KASH PATEL DOUBLES DOWN ON LAWSUIT AGAINST THE ATLANTIC, SLAMS OUTLET AS ‘FAKE NEWS MAFIA’
Beyond that, Patel would open himself up to discovery, meaning the defendants could have access to all kinds of emails, texts and documents, some of which surely be unflattering. He could be deposed under oath. He would have the same rights.
The malice question for public figures has been the legal standard since a 1964 Supreme Court ruling. Now I suppose this conservative court could overturn that. But I don’t think this lawsuit will even make it to trial.
The Atlantic reporter, Sarah Fitzpatrick, pointed to “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,” all on an anonymous basis.
The Atlantic reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick claims she spoke with over two dozen people about Patel’s conduct – including current and former FBI officials. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP )
Patel’s suit says that despite his denials, he was given just two hours to respond to the magazine’s list of questions.
He provided a statement, which the article included, and the denials were repeated by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said “Director Patel remains a critical player on the administration’s law and order team.”
In the article, Patel is described as having a “freak-out” when he couldn’t sign on to the internal computer system, telling staff members he had been fired. It turned out to be a glitch.
FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL VOWS TO TAKE THE ATLANTIC TO COURT OVER ‘DEFAMATORY’ REPORT
Among the allegations in the Fitzpatrick piece:
“Several officials told me that Patel’s drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government. They said that he is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication…Early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later in the day as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights, six current and former officials and others familiar with Patel’s schedule told me.
“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 Atlantic described Patel’s drinking as “no secret. While on official travel to Italy in February, he was filmed chugging beer with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team following their gold-medal victory. The incident prompted the president—who does not drink and whose brother died following a long struggle with alcoholism—to call the FBI director to convey his unhappiness, according to two officials familiar with the call.”
What’s more, the piece says, “Patel has led a purge of people who he believes are anti-Trump ‘conspirators’ or ‘enemies’ within the FBI. This has included firing people, opening internal investigations, and pressuring agents to quit when they pushed back—or were perceived to have pushed back—against Patel’s demands or questioned their legality.”
Patel, a onetime congressional aide, is a lawyer and ontime public defender who held various posts during Trump’s first term, and in 2022 became a director of the Trump Media & Technology Group.
In his lawsuit, the FBI chief said the article is “replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office…Director Patel does not drink to excess.”
HOW DONALD TRUMP TRIED TO COURT THE ATLANTIC – AND WHY THE LIBERAL MAGAZINE LANDED AN INTERVIEW
Under Editor Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic won its first Pulitzer Prize and three straight National Magazine Awards for general excellence. Adweek named him Editor of the Year and last year he won the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism.
It was Goldberg, you’ll recall, who was accidentally copied on a Signal chat in which War Secretary Pete Hegseth shared classified war information. But he cooperated with the administration on what could fairly be published.
Although Trump attacked Goldberg last year as a “sleazebag,” he later invited him and two reporters to an Oval Office interview.
The president, who was trying to get a favorable cover story, had posted that he was meeting with Goldberg “of all people.”
“It was “my way of explaining to people that you’re up here, because most people would say, ‘Why are you doing that?’ I’m doing that because there is a certain respect,” he told Goldberg.
President Donald Trump met with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg last year. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
The president, of course, has sued numerous news organizations, winning settlements of at least $16 million apiece from CBS and ABC.
In that vein, Patel’s lawsuit may not necessarily be about winning.
The FBI director may simply be going to court as a way of forcing the magazine to hire lawyers and as part of the Trump campaign to intimidate the media and perhaps soften or sink highly critical stories. (And yet the president talks to journalists virtually every day, increasingly takes their calls, and is going to his first White House Correspondents Dinner.)
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The Atlantic is owned by a company founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’ widow, who is the lead investor and chair of the magazine. She has spent about $5 billion, roughly half her inherited fortune, on such matters as environmental and social justice causes. Deep pockets don’t seem to be a problem.
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Kash Patel has broadcast serious questions about his conduct, even as he denies them, by going the lawsuit route. All he’s accomplished so far is putting the allegations on a huge national stage.
