Kash Patel Sues the Atlantic for $250M

Kash Patel's legal fight with the Atlantic is officially on. As CNBC reports, the FBI director filed a $250 million defamation suit in federal court in Washington, DC, on Monday, accusing the magazine and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick of publishing a "malicious" story that depicted him as a problem drinker. The article, originally headlined "Kash Patel's Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job," cited unnamed colleagues who claimed he frequently drank to the point of visible intoxication at private clubs in Washington and Las Vegas and was at times unreachable behind locked doors, allegedly prompting a request for specialized "breaching equipment."

Patel's 19-page complaint says those and 16 other specific assertions are false and were printed "with actual malice," despite warnings from his camp that the central claims were "categorically false." In a statement, Patel said, "The Atlantic's story is a lie," and argued the outlet ignored the truth to damage his reputation. The Atlantic countered that "We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend the Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit," a spokesperson tells CNN. As a high-profile public official, Patel must prove the magazine either knew its claims were false or showed reckless disregard for their accuracy to win under the Supreme Court's New York Times v. Sullivan standard.