The Daily Populous Saturday April 18th, 2026 evening edition
Authored by nypost.com and submitted by Ace-Cuddler

FBI Director Kash Patel threatened to file a lawsuit against The Atlantic Friday over a “categorically false and defamatory” report alleging “bouts of excessive drinking” have negatively impacted his leadership of the bureau.

The “hit piece,” as Patel’s lawyer described the story, claims the FBI director’s “conspicuous inebriation and unexplained absences” have “alarmed” Justice Department and bureau officials – and in one alleged instance resulted in his security detail requesting “breaching equipment” to get him out of a locked room.

“Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court — bring your checkbook,” Patel said in a statement included in the piece.

3 Patel plans to sue The Atlantic over the piece. ZUMAPRESS.com

Jesse Binnall, the FBI director’s attorney, shared a letter on X that was sent to journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick before her story was published asserting that “most” of the “substantive claims” about Patel in the piece were “false, unsourced, and facially defamatory.”

“They were on notice that the claims were categorically false and defamatory. They published anyway,” Binnall wrote.

He added, “See you in court.”

Binnall notes the “vast majority of the claims in the draft article rely solely on vague, unattributed sourcing such as ‘people familiar with the matter’ or ‘some have characterized.’”

The lawyer specifically called out an allegation that Patel’s security detail had so much difficulty waking him after a night of drinking that they requested “breaching equipment” to get into his locked room.

Binnall said the allegations “has no corroborating public record whatsoever and appears to be either fabricated or drawn from a single hostile and unreliable source.”

“A reasonable and responsible pre-publication investigation, including a simple request to the FBI for relevant documentary evidence, would have quickly disproven this claim and many of the others,” he argued.

3 Fitzpatrick, the author of the piece, said she stood by her reporting. linkedin/sarahfitzpatrick

3 Patel’s lawyer shared a letter he sent The Atlantic before the “hit piece” was published. X/jbinnall

Erica Knight, the FBI director’s communication strategist, described the story as one “every real DC reporter chased, couldn’t verify, and passed on.”

“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,” Knight wrote on X. “Every serious DC reporter passed on this. Sarah Fitzpatrick and Jeffrey Goldberg printed it anyway.

In an interview on MS NOW, Fitzpatrick maintained that she stood by her reporting.

Ace-Cuddler on April 18th, 2026 at 13:47 UTC »

If your coworkers have to decide whether they need to use "breaching equipment" (i.e., a battering ram) to get you out of a locked room because of your drinking, then it's way past time for an intervention.

CockBrother on April 18th, 2026 at 13:38 UTC »

Does he get to sue for $10 billion? Or only Trump gets to sue for that much?

Trying to figure out what the new laws are here.

Gay_Giraffe_1773 on April 18th, 2026 at 13:37 UTC »

Discovery always calls their bluff.