Seeking more than dismissal, The Atlantic responded to FBI Director Kash Patel’s nine-figure defamation suit with a prying demand.
“If Director Patel did not want to face this process, he should not have filed this suit.”
Within days of the April publication of an article titled “The FBI Director Is MIA,” Patel filed a defamation suit seeking $250 million in damages over claims about his alleged “excessive drinking.” Monday, The Atlantic responded in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with a motion to dismiss and a request to begin discovery with “documents and depositions of key individuals” from the Justice Department.
According to the outlet’s filing, Patel “brings this defamation action against The Atlantic for publishing an undeniably newsworthy article about his job performance that he finds politically inconvenient. It is an assault, by a man who swore to uphold it, on the core Constitutional value that ‘debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.”
The motion further argued that the director has yet to win any of his five defamation suits filed, including one against former FBI official and MSNBC analyst Frank Figliuzzi, suggesting, “By filing these suits, Director Patel sends an ominous message to the press: publishing reporting that he does not like comes at a high cost. These tactics strike at the very foundation of the First Amendment, which was adopted to prevent powerful government officials–like Director Patel–from controlling the public narrative by ‘punish[ing] the dissemination of material that is embarrassing to the powers-that be.'”
Within his lawsuit, Patel named both the outlet and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick, contending in part, “Fitzpatrick could not get a single person to go on the record in defense of these outrageous allegations, instead relying entirely on anonymous sources she knew to be both highly partisan with an ax to grind and also not in a position to know the facts.”
Kash Patel seeks $250 million from outlet that reported on his alleged ‘excessive drinking’ https://t.co/eWqsnpSRe5
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) April 21, 2026
The suit described the article as “a sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece.”
Weeks later, the FBI released a statement in response to claims the bureau was investigating the reporter, with FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson stating, “There is no criminal leak investigation focused on Sarah Fitzpatrick or her reporting.”
The statement continued, “There is no national security investigation focused on [Fitzpatrick] or her reporting. There are no agents assigned to any such matter because the matter does not exist.”
Meanwhile, accompanying Monday’s motion was a statement from The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg regarding the request to begin discovery.
“The Motion to Dismiss filed today by The Atlantic explains why this lawsuit is meritless and should be dismissed as a matter of law. We are simultaneously asking the court to permit us to begin seeking factual discovery from the FBI and the Department of Justice — including documents and depositions of key individuals — that is appropriate given the allegations in this matter,” said Goldberg. “If Director Patel did not want to face this process, he should not have filed this suit.”
The Atlantic today asked a judge to dismiss the Kash Patel defamation lawsuit while also asking for a stay in discovery with an exception: That it should be allowed to serve demands for records/testimony from the govt. EIC Jeffrey Goldberg’s statement here: pic.twitter.com/2jemENtDiO
— Katie Robertson (@katie_robertson) July 27, 2026
The editor-in-chief went on, “These legal filings are consistent with the promise I made to our staff and to our readers in May: we will defend The Atlantic and its staff vigorously; we will not be intimidated by acts of politically motivated retaliation; we will continue to cover the FBI professionally, fairly, and thoroughly; and we will continue to practice journalism in the public interest.”
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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