Kash Patel’s FBI has reportedly opened a criminal leak investigation involving a reporter who published an embarrassing account of his alleged excessive drinking.
Two sources told MS Now on Wednesday that the agency opened an investigation into reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick after she published her piece “The FBI Director Is MIA,” in The Atlantic last month.
The unnamed sources cited in the report said the investigation was being handled by agents in Huntsville, Alabama, who form part of an insider threats unit.
“They know they are not supposed to do this,” one source told the outlet. “But if they don’t go forward, they could lose their jobs. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
FBI Assistant Director Ben Williamson told the Daily Beast that MS Now’s account is “completely false.”
“No such investigation like this exists and the reporter you mention is not being investigated at all. Every time there’s a publication of false claims by anonymous sources that gets called out, the media plays the victim via investigations that do not exist,” Williamson said.
Patel, 46, has been scrambling to counter the damning report that he’s slammed as “hit piece lies,” filing a $250 million defamation lawsuit days after it was published.
The article cited more than two dozen anonymous sources and described Patel as having a drinking problem so severe it could “threaten national security.”
The Daily Beast has not independently corroborated the anecdotes reported in The Atlantic’s article. The award-winning magazine, however, has doubled down.
“We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” a spokesperson said last month.
The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, told the Daily Beast of the reported investigation: “If confirmed to be true, this would represent an outrageous attack on the free press and the First Amendment itself. We will defend The Atlantic and its staff vigorously; we will not be intimidated by illegitimate investigations or other 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.”
This wouldn’t be the first time the embattled FBI director has been accused of using his powerful agency as a tool for revenge.
Last month, it was reported that Patel had directed agents to investigate a New York Times reporter after she revealed that he had used bureau personnel to provide his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins, with government security and transportation.
The report stated that Wilkins, 27, has a full-time protective detail from a Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team. Those agents, who are pulled from FBI field offices across the country, are tasked with shuttling the aspiring country star to gigs and daily errands like hair appointments.
The probe into reporter Elizabeth Williamson prompted concerns among FBI officials, who saw no legal basis to proceed with the investigation based on her reporting.
Attempted intimidation of the press has become a hallmark of the Trump era. Patel’s attorney in his defamation case against The Atlantic, Jason Greaves of the Binnall Law Group, was paid more than $4.5 million in legal fees by Trump PACs from 2022 to 2024. The firm also represented Trump, 79, following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
Still, Patel’s string of controversies has reportedly made him not-so-popular in the White House, with rumors swirling of his imminent firing.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt offered a statement defending Patel last month, however, telling The Atlantic that “crime across the country has plummeted to the lowest level in more than 100 years and many high-profile criminals have been put behind bars. Director Patel remains a critical player on the Administration’s law and order team.”
