Kash Patel Appeals Judge’s Dismissal of MSNBC Defamation Lawsuit Amid New Controversy Over Trip to Hawaii

The FBI Director, Kash Patel, appealed a federal judge’s dismissal of his 2025 defamation lawsuit filed against a retired FBI agent and former MSNBC contributor, Frank Figliuzzi, who suggested the 46-year-old was spending more time in Las Vegas nightclubs than at FBI headquarters, according to court filings.Mr. Patel’s attorney filed the appeal in response to United States District Judge George C. Hanks Jr.’s ruling in April that Mr. Figliuzzi’s claim was “rhetorical hyperbole that cannot constitute defamation.” The appeal, which was first reported by counterterrorism researcher Seamus Hughes, was filed Thursday at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In his April ruling, Judge Hanks, a Republican who was appointed by President Obama in 2014, said 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 said. 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” host saying on air that “we have not verified that claim.”In his ruling, 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. Judge Hanks’s ruling came just one day after Mr. Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the Atlantic magazine and its reporter, Sarah Fitzpatrick, over its report claiming the FBI director was close to being fired over his “erratic” performance and alleged drinking problem. Ms. Fitzpatrick responded to the lawsuit by publishing another unflattering article highlighting Mr. Patel’s collection of Woodford Reserve whiskey bottles bearing his personal branding. Also on Thursday, the Associated Press reported that Mr. Patel took a “VIP snorkel” around the USS Arizona, a sunken battleship that serves as a Pearl Harbor war memorial, on an August 2025 trip to Hawaii that his office maintained was for work. Citing government emails obtained through a public records request, the Associated Press reported that military officials arranged logistics and personnel for Mr. Patel to snorkel around the USS Arizona, which entombs more than 900 sailors and Marines who died during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.A Marine veteran likened Mr. Patel’s VIP snorkel to “having a bachelor party at a church.” Mr. Patel was in Hawaii as part of a two-day stopover from a trip to New Zealand, where the FBI opened its first stand-alone office in Wellington. Mr. Patel gifted senior police and intelligence officials 3D-printed replica pistols that were subsequently destroyed, as local New Zealand gun laws prohibit ownership of such weapons without a special permit. The FBI said in a statement at the time that Mr. Patel’s Honolulu visit involved a “walking tour” to the FBI’s field office there, where he was briefed on “violent crime initiatives” and casework. The trip was also “part of his ongoing commitment to supporting front-line efforts and strengthening inter-agency partnerships,” the FBI added. The FBI director has been heavily scrutinized for his frequent — yet congressionally mandated — use of a government jet that his critics say is luxury travel disguised as a work trip.Weeks after his VIP snorkel around the Pearl Harbor memorial, Mr. Patel and his friends flew on a government plane to Inverness, Scotland, where he spent a week at a golf resort. Mr. Patel is required by Congress to fly on planes equipped with secure communications technology and must reimburse the government for the cost of a commercial ticket if he uses the jet for personal travel.At a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington, said she was concerned about Mr. Patel’s perceived lack of seriousness in the role after his well-documented and rowdy visit to the locker room of the U.S. Men’s Olympic Hockey team after its gold medal victory in Italy’s winter games.“We need somebody at this agency who is focused on solving criminal cases, not passing out branded bourbon or jetting around the globe,” Ms. Murray said.

Kash Patel Appeals Judge’s Dismissal of MSNBC Defamation Lawsuit Amid New Controversy Over Trip to Hawaii

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