This weekend, The Atlantic magazine published an exposé claiming that FBI Director Kash Patel regularly gets drunk at work, has outbursts, takes unexplained absences, and appears paranoid about losing his job.
On Monday, the FBI director sued the newspaper, citing around 25 sources, including FBI employees and members of Congress, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
***
“I’ve never been drunk on the job, and that’s why we’ve filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit. And if any of you want to be a part of it, go ahead, see you in court,” he said at a press conference about another legal case on Tuesday, according to Politico.
During the high-profile press conference, Patel got into a heated argument with an NBC reporter. It concerned The Atlantic’s report that Patel, at one point, panicked and thought he was about to lose his job when he couldn’t log into the FBI’s system. The login problem is confirmed in Patel’s lawsuit – but in the exchange of words, he claimed that the report is untrue.
“The problem with you and your baseless reporting is that it’s an absolute lie. It was never said. It never happened,” Patel replied, according to The Hill, when asked by the reporter what he was thinking when he couldn’t log into his computer.
Rude?Patel was supported by Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, who intervened at the press conference and called the reporter “incredibly rude.”
Patel, a New York-born lawyer and former prosecutor known for his loyalty to Donald Trump, has denounced Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and said that people who “undermine the president’s agenda” have no business in the intelligence community.
The US federal police, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), has around 38,000 employees and has offices in all major cities in the country, as well as 60 offices at the country’s embassies abroad.
The FBI was founded in 1908 and is tasked with protecting the United States from terrorist attacks, espionage, cybercrime and corruption, as well as combating criminal organizations, economic crime and serious violent crimes.
The FBI director normally serves a ten-year term. The agency is currently led by Kash Patel, who President Donald Trump nominated when he took office for his second term in January last year.
