Kash Patel Threatens Lawsuit Over Report On His Allegedly Frequent ‘Intoxication Incidents’ | EUROtoday

FBI Director Kash Patel stated on Friday that he’ll file a lawsuit after The Atlantic revealed a report questioning his health for the job and citing a number of officers who stated his alcohol use has “been a recurring source of concern across the government.”

Reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick of The Atlantic included a remark from the FBI attributed to Patel in her article, titled “The FBI Director Is MIA,” which learn, “Print it, all false, I’ll see you in court — bring your checkbook.”

Patel doubled down Friday on X, writing, “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.” The publish included a screenshot of an e mail from the FBI assistant director for public affairs.

“Sarah, Top to bottom, this is one of the most absurd things I’ve ever read,” wrote Benjamin Williamson within the purported e mail. “Completely false at a nearly 100% clip. And with a two hour deadline. Copying my colleague Erica. We’ll get you some more thorough responses.”

The article itself, in the meantime, featured some troubling allegations.

Fitzpatrick reported, “On multiple occasions in the past year, members of his security detail had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to information supplied to Justice Department and White House officials.”

“A request for ‘breaching equipment’—normally used by SWAT and hostage-rescue teams to quickly gain entry into buildings—was made last year because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors, according to multiple people familiar with the request,” she continued.

Fitzpatrick additionally wrote that Patel struggled to log into “an internal computer system” final Friday and have become satisfied that he was purposefully locked out — and “panicked, frantically calling aides and allies to announce that he had been fired by the White House.”

She attributed this to 9 folks and stated two of them known as Patel’s conduct a “freak-out.”

“Early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later in the day as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights, six current and former officials and others familiar with Patel’s schedule told me,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

FBI media adviser Erica Knight claimed on social media Friday that the “so-called ‘intoxication incidents’” occurred “exactly ZERO times” after which exhaustively enumerated the arrests, kilos of seized fentanyl and recovered lacking kids underneath Patel’s controversial tenure.

Knight concluded her publish by stating, “Lawsuit is being filed.”

Fitzpatrick was requested on MS NOW throughout a Friday look on “The Briefing with Jen Psaki” about Knight’s publish, and replied, “I say that I am a very careful, very diligent award-winning investigative reporter with a history of award-winning work.”

Patel’s conduct within the highlight has lengthy been the topic of scrutiny, with probably the most current examples occurring in February, when he attended the Winter Olympics gold-medal hockey recreation and celebrated Team USA’s win by chugging beer with the gamers of their locker room.

Patel had vowed forward of his nomination as FBI director to unravel the Jeffrey Epstein case and convey justice for the victims, solely to assert the late intercourse offender by no means trafficked victims to different folks and took his personal life, regardless of widespread doubts.

Need assist with substance use dysfunction or psychological well being points? In the U.S., name 800-662-HELP (4357) for the SAMHSA National Helpline.