A new report from The Atlantic has FBI Director Kash Patel threatening to sue for defamation after multiple sources said Keystone Kash has been drinking excessively, behaving erratically, and “freaked out” when he couldn’t log into the computer system, fearing he had been fired.
The report says that Patel was preparing to leave for the weekend on April 10 when he was frantically trying to log in to an internal computer system and failing. He panicked, called aides to announce he had been fired by the White House, according to nine sources.
It turned out to be a technical error and was quickly resolved.
But the incident reveals that Patel is reportedly deeply concerned about keeping his job, and evidence mounts up that he has reasons to be concerned.
According to the report, he is suspicious of others, jumps to conclusions before obtaining necessary evidence, is conspicuously inebriated, and is often absent.
The drinking is happening at a private club in Washington, in front of White House and administration officials, as well as in a Las Vegas club where he often spends weekends.
Team Patel is calling the report “categorically false” and is threatening to sue The Atlantic’s reporter, Sarah Fitzpatrick, as he claims the article met the high bar for defamation.
Fitzpatrick added that the FBI is not a place where people are eager to leak to the press, so the volume of sourcing in her piece — which relied on more than two dozen interviews, including with current and former FBI officials — suggested real internal alarm about Patel’s stewardship of the bureau.