'Kash Patel does not drink to excess': 19-page lawsuit against Atlantic for $250 million details why FBI director 'freaked out'

The 19-page lawsuit that FBI director Kash Patel filed against the Atlantic and its journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick, over their article on Patel’s drinking problem, which it said is a cause of concern for the administration, claimed that Kash Patel does not drink to excess. “Director Patel does not drink to excess at these establishments or anywhere else, and this has not, and has never been, a source of concern across the government,” one sentence of the lawsuit said, countering the article’s claim that Patel drinks to the point of obvious intoxication at Ned’s in Washington DC, Poodle Room in Las Vegas etc. That Patel is so drunk that he is unreachable and all his meetings are drinking charades and he was intoxicated when Charlie Kirk was killed are all false, the lawsuit claimed. But it did not deny one particular incident in the Atlantic report that claimed Patel ‘freaked out’ on April 10 and thought he was fired as he could not log in to his system. “On April 10, 2026, Director Patel had a routine technical problem logging into a government system, which was quickly fixed. Director Patel’s sole focus is on carrying out the administration’s law enforcement priorities,” the lawsuit said, adding that the parts that Patel ‘freaked out’ over ‘job-jeopardy’ were all false. The Atlantic is free to criticize the leadership of the FBI, but this particular report crossed the legal line, the lawsuit said, demanding $250 million in damages for harming Patel’s reputation.“Indeed, 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,” the lawsuit said. In a statement posted on X, The Atlantic said, “We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists from this meritless lawsuit.”This is the second lawsuit that Patel filed against a media house and on allegations of his drinking and partying. Last year, he sued Frank Figliuzzi, an MSNBC analyst and former FBI agent, over a claim suggesting Patel was spending more time in nightclubs than at the FBI’s headquarters. That case is still pending.