Washington: FBI director Kash Patel is suing The Atlantic magazine over an explosive article that portrayed him as “missing in action” and a problem drinker whose behaviour has alarmed those around him at the nation’s top crime-fighting agency.
The article, published on Friday, said multiple witnesses described Patel’s “bouts of excessive drinking”, and reported that there was widespread concern in the US government about his conspicuous intoxication.
Multiple times in the past year, members of Patel’s security detail “had difficulty waking [him] because he was seemingly intoxicated”, The Atlantic reported, citing “information supplied to Justice Department and White House officials”.
The magazine alleged that at one point, staff made a request for “breaching equipment” – ramming gear used by SWAT and hostage teams to enter buildings – because Patel was unreachable behind a locked door.
Patel’s colleagues are reportedly concerned his behaviour has become a threat to public safety, and that he may be missing or unavailable while the nation responds to a domestic terrorist attack.
A Donald Trump loyalist and a national security official during the first Trump administration, Patel was appointed by the president in part to reform the FBI after what both men believe was the politicisation and weaponisation of the agency under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden.
In the lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday morning (US time), Patel’s lawyers said The Atlantic article constituted a “sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece” that crossed a legal line and contained “false and obviously fabricated allegations”.
The journalist, Sarah Fitzpatrick, “could not get a single person to go on the record in defence of these outrageous allegations”, the complaint said, and instead relied on anonymous sources “she knew to be both highly partisan with an axe to grind and also not in a position to know the facts”.
Patel also accused the magazine of a “well-documented, long-running editorial animus” against him, failing to give him enough time to respond to their questions and “deliberately structuring the pre-publication process to avoid receiving information that would refute their narrative”.
The Atlantic said in a statement that it stood by its reporting and would vigorously defend itself and Fitzpatrick against the “meritless lawsuit”.
Rumours have circled in Washington about Patel’s fate as FBI director, with anonymous sources briefing media outlets that Trump was dissatisfied with him, among other senior appointees and cabinet members.
While on official travel to Italy for this year’s Winter Olympics, Patel was filmed chugging beer in the locker room with the American men’s hockey team after they won a gold medal, in a clip that went viral.
Patel gave an interview to Fox News on Sunday (US time) in which he blamed the “fake news mafia” for trying to destroy his reputation and foreshadowed that he would sue for defamation.
He also defended his record on reducing violent crime, cutting opiate overdose deaths, seizing fentanyl and reducing the flow of the killer drug into the US.
Homicides plunged more than 20 per cent in 2025, and are on track to be the lowest since 1900 when data is finalised, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
“If I’m not doing my job, if I’m not working, then how is it that the FBI delivered the safest America under President Trump’s leadership in the history of our country?” Patel said on Fox News.
Trump has not made a public declaration of support for Patel since The Atlantic published its story. But White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the magazine that crime had plummeted under Patel’s leadership of the FBI and he “remains a critical player on the administration’s law and order team”.
If Trump were to move against Patel, the FBI director would join a growing list of top appointees purged in recent months, after Kristi Noem was ousted as homeland security secretary and Pam Bondi removed as the attorney-general.
The FBI is of particular concern to Trump. Its investigation of alleged collusion between Russia and senior officials in the Trump 2016 campaign dominated the early stages of his first term, and led him to fire James Comey as FBI director in 2017.
Trump continues to regard Comey as one of his political enemies, and in his second term, he pressured Bondi and the Justice Department to bring charges against Comey. Those charges – that he lied to Congress – were thrown out after a judge found they were improperly brought.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
