White House officials ‘openly discuss’ firing FBI director Kash Patel, reporter says
www.independent.co.uk
Sarah Fitzpatrick, the reporter behind the bombshell exposé about Kash Patel’s alleged conduct, said she stands by her story after he threatened to sue

Sarah Fitzpatrick, the reporter behind the bombshell exposé about Kash Patel’s alleged conduct, said she stands by her story after he threatened to sue

White House officials are “openly discussing” who will be the next FBI director amid a bombshell report about current leader Kash Patel’s alleged excessive drinking and other concerning conduct.

Patel has threatened to sue The Atlantic after journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick’s report alleged the FBI director is deeply paranoid about being fired and often drinks to excess, alarming officials at the agency and beyond. Fitzpatrick responded that she stands “by every word of this reporting” and told MS NOW: “We have excellent attorneys.”

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    6·
    4 days ago

    Patel has vowed to sue The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick, suggesting in a social media post that the article met the high legal bar to qualify as defamation.

    I doubt that. Patel is a public figure. The US has a high bar for defamation to start with, and it gets harder for public figures.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times_Co._v._Sullivan

    New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), is a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled the freedom of speech protections in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution limit the ability of public officials to sue for defamation.[1][2] The decision held that if a plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit is a public official or candidate for public office, then not only must they prove the normal elements of defamation—publication of a false defamatory statement to a third party—they must also prove that the statement was made with “actual malice”, meaning the defendant either knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded whether it might be false.[2] New York Times Co. v. Sullivan is frequently ranked as one of the greatest Supreme Court decisions of the modern era.

    • arc99@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      And truth is an absolute defence. I imagine the Atlantic had lots of meetings with lawyers about publishing a story about Patel being an unqualified, paranoid, incompetent drunk.