{"id":19980,"date":"2026-07-28T15:54:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T10:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19980"},"modified":"2026-07-28T15:54:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T10:54:37","slug":"the-atlantic-files-motion-to-dismiss-in-kash-patel-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=19980","title":{"rendered":"The Atlantic Files Motion to Dismiss in Kash Patel Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<div id=\"attachment_5739251\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5739251\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5739251\" src=\"https:\/\/am11.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/patel.jpg\" alt=\"Kash Patel\" width=\"1200\" height=\"628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/am12.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/patel.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/am12.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/patel-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/am12.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/patel-768x402.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5739251\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kash Patel<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>The Atlantic<\/em> argued for FBI Director <strong>Kash Patel\u2019s<\/strong> defamation lawsuit against them to be thrown out in a scathing motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court in D.C.<\/p>\n<p>Patel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/politics\/fbi-director-kash-patel-files-250-million-lawsuit-against-the-atlantic-over-article-on-alleged-excessive-drinking-and-unexplained-absences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">filed the lawsuit back in April<\/a> \u2014 accusing The Atlantic and writer Sarah <strong>Fitzpatrick<\/strong> of defaming him in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/2026\/04\/kash-patel-fbi-director-drinking-absences\/686839\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blockbuster story<\/a> in which they reported Patel had \u201calarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patel\u2019s attorneys, <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.dcd.291527\/gov.uscourts.dcd.291527.1.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in the initial filing<\/a>, argued The Atlantic published \u201ca sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece\u201d against him which was complete with \u201cobviously fabricated\u201d allegation.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Atlantic<\/em> responded Monday with a scorching brief \u2014 arguing that Patel \u201cbrings this defamation action against The Atlantic for publishing an undeniably newsworthy article about his job performance that he finds politically inconvenient. It is an assault, by a man who swore to uphold it, on the core Constitutional value that \u2018debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The brief \u2014 which calls the FBI Director\u2019s allegations \u201cmeritless\u201d \u2014 notes that Patel has now filed five defamation lawsuits against media organizations in recent years and has yet to win one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy filing these suits, Director Patel sends an ominous message to the press: publishing reporting that he does not like comes at a high cost,\u201d the brief said. \u201cThese tactics strike at the very foundation of the First Amendment, which was adopted to prevent powerful government officials\u2014like Director Patel\u2014from controlling the public narrative by \u2018punish[ing] the dissemination of material that is embarrassing to the powers-that be.&#8221;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, The Atlantic\u2019s Editor in Chief Jeffrey Goldberg saidd that The Atlantic \u2014 in addition to trying to get the case thrown out \u2014 is also seeking to begin discovery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Motion to Dismiss filed today by The Atlantic explains why this lawsuit is meritless and should be dismissed as a matter of law,\u201d Goldberg said. \u201cWe are simultaneously asking the court to permit us to begin seeking factual discovery from the FBI and the Department of Justice \u2013 including documents and depositions of key individuals \u2013 that is appropriate given the allegations in this matter. If Director Patel did not want to face this process, he should not have filed this suit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese legal filings are consistent with the promise I made to our staff and to our readers in May: we will defend The Atlantic and its staff vigorously; we will not be intimidated by acts of politically motivated retaliation; we will continue to cover the FBI professionally, fairly, and thoroughly; and we will continue to practice journalism in the public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kash Patel The Atlantic argued for FBI Director Kash Patel\u2019s defamation lawsuit against them to be thrown out in a scathing motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court in D.C. Patel filed the lawsuit back in April \u2014 accusing The Atlantic and writer Sarah Fitzpatrick of defaming him in a blockbuster story in which they&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/kash.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}