Defiant Kash Patel Loses Defamation Case Against MSNBC Contributor One Day After Suing The Atlantic for $250 Million

A federal judge dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed last year by FBI Director Kash Patel against a retired FBI agent and former MSNBC contributor, Frank Figliuzzi, who claimed that the 45-year-old was “far more” visible at Las Vegas nightclubs than at FBI headquarters.The ruling comes a day after Mr. Patel filed a separate, $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic magazine and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick over its explosive report claiming he may soon be fired over a drinking problem and an “erratic” performance that anonymous sources described as a “national security vulnerability.”United States District Court Southern District of Texas Judge George C. Hanks Jr., a Republican who was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2014, ruled that Mr. Figliuzzi’s claim was “rhetorical hyperbole that cannot constitute defamation.”Attorney for Mr. Patel wrote in their suit against The Atlantic that the publication “crossed the legal line by publishing an article replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office.”At a press conference Tuesday, Mr. Patel, responding to a reporter’s question on whether he could say definitively that had not been “intoxicated or absent” during his time as FBI director, replied that he “can say that I never listen to the fake news mafia.”“This FBI director has been on the job twice as many days as every director before me. I’ve taken half as many days off,” Mr. Patel said, with the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, standing beside him.In its April 19 report, “The FBI Director is MIA,” the Atlantic magazine, a publication that has never shied away from fierce criticism of President Trump and his Cabinet members, reported that Mr. Patel feared he had been fired earlier this month when he was unable to log into an internal FBI computer system.Asked Tuesday by an NBC News reporter, Ryan Reilly, to explain the incident, Mr. Patel fired back, saying that it was “an absolute lie.”“I was never locked out of my systems. Anyone that says the opposite is lying,” Mr. Patel replied.In their lawsuit against The Atlantic, Mr. Patel’s attorneys said on April 10 he “had a routine technical problem logging into a government system, which was quickly fixed.”An FBI spokesman, Ben Williamson, and Mr. Patel’s attorney, Jesse R. Binnall, both maintain that Ms. Fitzpatrick sent a request for comment “containing nineteen substantive claims” about the FBI director less than two hours before publication, a move they maintain was intended “precisely to manufacture a ‘no comment’ or a summary denial, insulate themselves from the substance of the FBI response, and publish before the truth could catch up with them.” In a statement, The Atlantic said it stands by its reporting and “will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” the magazine said in a statement Monday.During a May 2025 broadcast of “Morning Joe,” Mr. Figliuzzi, a former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, responded to a question about Mr. Patel’s reduced visibility in the White House by saying “he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building.”He added that “there are reports that daily briefings to him have been changed from every day to maybe twice weekly.”MSNBC was forced to walk back the “misstatement,” with a “Morning Joe” saying on air that “we have not verified that claim.”In June, Mr. Patel sued Mr. Figliuzzi, alleging that he had known the statement “was a lie when he said it.”In his motion to dismiss, Mr. Figliuzzi argued his comment was a “sarcastic, hyperbolic remark that receives protection from defamation liability.”On Tuesday, Judge Hanks ruled that Mr. Figliuzzi’s statement, when taken in context, “cannot have been perceived by a person of ordinary intelligence as stating actual facts about Patel.”“By saying that Patel spent far more’ time at nightclubs than his office, Figliuzzi delivered his answer ‘in an exaggerated, provocative and amusing way,’ employing rhetorical hyperbole,” Judge Hanks added. Judge Hanks denied Mr. Figliuzzi’s request to be awarded attorney’s fees and court costs under Texas’s anti-SLAPP, or Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation, law. In response to Judge Hanks’s ruling, Mr. Patel’s personal spokesperson, Erica Knight, took a shot at The Atlantic for claiming “their identical claims are ironclad truth.”Ms. Knight, writing on X, added: “Either it’s dramatic exaggeration garbage… or straight defamation. Pick one.”

Defiant Kash Patel Loses Defamation Case Against MSNBC Contributor One Day After Suing The Atlantic for $250 Million

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