On Thursday, we witnessed the entertainment magazine “Variety” and CNN international anchor Christiane Amanpour beclown themselves in the latest desperate bid to ‘own’ Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. It seems that legacy media is determined to take down members of the Trump administration, particularly those they strongly oppose, such as Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel. The outcome of these misguided efforts often results in the media stepping on a rake, as has recently happened with “The Atlantic.”
On Friday night, The Atlantic released an anonymously sourced hit piece on Patel titled, “The FBI Director Is MIA: Kash Patel has alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.” The article starts with a story about Patel, who reportedly lost access to his computer and panicked, mistakenly believing he had been fired. It continues with information from “people familiar with the matter” and includes quotes from important figures such as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
But Patel, according to multiple current officials, as well as former officials who have stayed close to him, is deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy. He has good reasons to think so—including some having to do with what witnesses described to me as bouts of excessive drinking. My colleague Ashley Parker and I reported earlier this month that Patel was among the officials expected to be fired after Attorney General Pam Bondi’s ouster, on April 2. “We’re all just waiting for the word” that Patel is officially out of the top job, an FBI official told me this week, and a former official told my colleague Jonathan Lemire that Patel was “rightly paranoid.” Senior members of the Trump administration are already discussing who might replace him, according to an administration official and two people close to the White House who were familiar with the conversations.
Fridays are typically when politicians, government departments, and agencies release news and information that is often forgettable or meant to go unnoticed. Director Patel and his colleagues recognized this blatant attempt to undermine their work and swiftly responded to push back against it.
Benjamin Williamson, Assistant Director of the FBI Office of Public Affairs, wrote to the fake news journalist who authored this garbage:
Top to bottom, this is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever read. Completely false at nearly 100% clip. And with a two hour deadline.
Copying my colleague Erica. We’ll get you some more thorough responses.
Patel was more direct, warning he would “see you and your entire entourage of false reporting in court.”
see you and your entire entourage of false reporting in court… But do keep at it with the fake news, actual malice standard is now what some would call a legal lay up. https://t.co/MfbHH8OtLv pic.twitter.com/kw5U3LrfMM
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) April 18, 2026
You would think that after the embarrassment surrounding “Signalgate” and the controversial “suckers and losers” claim, The Atlantic would choose to back off. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case because that assumes they are a responsible media outlet, and clearly they ain’t.
Litigator Jesse R. Binnall even reached out to The Atlantic prior to the release of the article, providing a detailed account of the inaccuracies contained within it. Binnall warned that if they proceeded to publish the article without making the necessary corrections, they would face legal action.
And so they shall:
This is the letter we sent to The Atlantic and Sarah Fitzpatrick BEFORE they published their hit piece on FBI Director @FBIDirectorKash. They were on notice that the claims were categorically false and defamatory. They published anyway.
See you in court. pic.twitter.com/Ke8cqNh8hY
— Jesse R. Binnall (@jbinnall) April 17, 2026
Williamson’s colleague, Erica Knight, provided a detailed analysis of how this situation arose. According to Knight, every other publication in D.C. was aware of these rumors and allegations. Some were even approached directly with the information, but chose not to pursue it because they all knew it was likely BS.
But not The Atlantic. Nothing, apparently, is too ‘BS-y’ for them.
The Atlantic published a "bombshell" on Director Patel tonight that every real DC reporter chased, couldn't verify, and passed on.
Here's reality. Since being sworn in, Director Patel has taken a grand total of 17 days off — half as much time off as Comey and Wray — and he…
— Erica Knight (@_EricaKnight) April 17, 2026
The Atlantic published a “bombshell” on Director Patel tonight that every real DC reporter chased, couldn’t verify, and passed on.
Here’s reality. Since being sworn in, Director Patel has taken a grand total of 17 days off — half as much time off as Comey and Wray — and he spends twice as much time in the office as either of them ever did. The so-called “intoxication incidents” The Atlantic breathlessly reports have happened exactly ZERO times. Under his tenure: 67,000 arrests nationwide. Violent crime arrests up 112%. Murder rate down 20%. 1,800 criminal gangs dismantled. 2,200+ kilos of fentanyl seized — enough to kill 178 million Americans. 300 human traffickers arrested. 6,200+ missing children recovered. 1,700 online predators arrested — a 490% increase. 8 of the Top Ten Most Wanted captured, double the previous four years combined. 1,000+ agents redeployed from DC bureaucracy back to field offices chasing criminals.
The Atlantic’s “reporting”? Fabricated stories about “breaching equipment” that was never requested. Intoxication claims with not a single witness willing to put their name on one. A paragraph — I’m not kidding — about the FBI Store not carrying “intimidating enough” merchandise. Every serious DC reporter passed on this. Sarah Fitzpatrick and Jeffrey Goldberg printed it anyway.
She noted, too, that a “lawsuit is being filed.”
The unfortunate truth is that The Atlantic has plenty of financial resources and access to lawyers ready to act on their behalf. Their main concern seems to be how much benefit they can gain from creating fake scandals and misleading narratives, particularly in their efforts to amplify their anti-Trump sentiments.
Clint Brown, Patel’s “Sherpa” during his FBI confirmation process, responded on X the the fake news author:
Hey @S_Fitzpatrick I was Kash Patel’s Sherpa on the transition. I spent nearly all day everyday with him for 3+ months and have been with him frequently since.
I have never seen the type of behavior that you’re describing from him.
Your anon sourced story is BS.
Oh and by the… https://t.co/hwWnUrYrKT pic.twitter.com/T0EUhyKbq0
— Clint Brown (@DissidentClint) April 18, 2026
Your anon sourced story is BS.
Oh and by the way, it was no pressure campaign that got Kash confirmed. He did his homework, studied every brief I wrote him (and I wrote them all personally). If I sent him material at say 2am, he would respond with questions by 3am. He was always available and never hard to reach. Ultimately, he addressed any concerns senators had. He studied the law enforcement issues in each of their states and came prepared with plans, ideas, and questions for addressing the unique law enforcement needs of each state. THAT is who Kash Patel is and it’s why the FBI has been so effective in the last year.
I’ve never once seen him over drink. Not once. You are spinning that narrative because you know POTUS doesn’t view that favorably, even admitted as much in your story.
And I’m not hard to find. Pretty obvious why you didn’t reach out to me for comment.
This rag should have to depart with tens of millions of their bank account after what they did to Patel. And maybe, just maybe, he can go after in fake news journalists too. The only way these people learn lessons is to do to them what they are trying to do to Trump’s team: Destroy them.
