Judge Tosses Kash Patel's Other Defamation Lawsuit

Kash Patel's week in court is off to a mixed start. One day after the FBI director sued the Atlantic for $250 million, a federal judge in Texas threw out his separate defamation case against former FBI official and TV analyst Frank Figliuzzi. Patel had claimed Figliuzzi smeared him on MSNBC's Morning Joe thusly, per Deadline:

• "Well, reportedly, he's been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building."

US District Judge George Hanks Jr. ruled the remark was an obvious exaggeration, writing that a reasonable viewer would not interpret it literally and that Figliuzzi was using "rhetorical hyperbole," which is protected speech and cannot be defamatory. The judge declined, however, to grant Figliuzzi attorneys' fees under Texas' anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) statute. Figliuzzi lawyer Marc Fuller tells CNBC that the ruling is "a victory for press freedom and the First Amendment." Patel's newly filed lawsuit against the Atlantic accuses the magazine of peddling fabricated claims about heavy drinking and frequent absences; the outlet says it stands by its reporting and calls that suit meritless.