by
Anna
Moneymaker/Getty
Images)
“Actual
malice
standard
is
now
what
some
would
call
a
legal
lay
up,”
tweeted
FBI
Director
Kash
Patel.
He
vows
to
sue
The
Atlantic
over
a
story
published
Friday
which
describes
him
as
habitually
drunk
and
wholly
lacking
in
judgment.
“I’ll
see
you
in
court—bring
your
checkbook,”
he
warned
the
magazine.
Patel
then
went
on
Fox
to
promise
Maria
Bartiromo
that
he
intends
to
file
tomorrow
—
or
today
as
you’re
reading
this
—
and
a
million
lawyers
and
journalists
simultaneously
kicked
their
feet
in
gleeful
anticipation.
Please,
oh,
please
give
us
something
to
laugh
about
in
this
cursed
news
cycle
of
death!
Patel’s
co-pilot
on
this
doomed
outing
is
former
Stop
the
Steal
lawyer
Jesse
Binnall,
whose
eponymous
firm
represents
various
MAGA
also-rans,
including
Mike
Flynn,
Hunter
Biden’s
former
business
partner
Tony
Bobulinski,
and
Patel’s
girlfriend
Alexis
Wilkins,
who
is
definitely
not
an
Israeli
agent.
In
2024,
Binnall
sued
CNN
over
reports
that
former
North
Carolina
lieutenant
governor
Mark
Robinson
had
posted
lewd
comments
to
various
porn
discussion
forums
under
the
handle
“minisoldr.”
Binnall
stumbled
out
of
the
gate
by
violating
the
state’s
ban
on
including
an
ad
damnum
(damages)
clause
in
the
complaint,
a
rule
which
exists
to
stop
litigants
from
holding
press
conferences
on
the
courthouse
steps
announcing
that
they’re
suing
for
$50
million
—
exactly
what
Binnall
and
Robinson
did.
The
case
was
quietly
dropped
four
months
later.
It
will
be
hard
to
top
that
legal
tour
de
force,
but
Binnall
is
giving
it
the
old
college
try.
He
began
by
tweeting
out
the
pre-publication
cease-and-desist
letter
he
sent
demanding
that
The
Atlantic
kill
the
piece.
As
the
Daily
Beast
pointed
out,
the
letter
included
multiple
allegations
that
didn’t
make
it
into
the
final
version
of
the
story,
including
a
claim
that
Patel
shut
down
the
FBI
gift
shop
so
that
he
could
browse
alone.
This
strongly
suggests
that
The
Atlantic’s
Sarah
Fitzpatrick
was
actually
doing
her
damnedest
to
verify
every
single
claim.
It’s
also
the
kind
of
thing
most
lawyers
place
behind
redaction
bars,
but,
hey,
you
do
you,
Jessie
B!
Patel
reportedly
complained
the
items
on
offer
were
not
“intimidating
enough,”
which
must
have
stung
coming
from
the
marketing
maven
behind
the
clothing
company
Based
Apparel
and
K$H
wine.
As
for
the
veracity
of
the
story,
it’s
hardly
news
that
Patel
likes
a
tipple.
He
was
famously
photographed
on
a
“work”
trip
to
the
Winter
Olympics
pounding
beers
with
the
victorious
men’s
hockey
team.
Veteran
reporter
Sarah
Fitzpatrick
cites
dozens
of
sources
who
say
that
Patel
has
been
drunk
in
public
at
DC
club
Ned’s
and
the
Poodle
Room
in
Las
Vegas;
that
meetings
had
to
be
rescheduled
early
in
his
tenure
because
he
was
too
hungover
to
function;
and
that
members
of
his
security
detail
have
had
difficulty
rousing
him
because
he
was
seemingly
intoxicated.
Binnall
insists
that
this
cannot
possibly
be
true
because
“Director
Patel
has
likewise
made
The
Atlantic
expressly
aware
that
these
allegations
are
false.”
He
also
cites
“the
FBI’s
documented
operational
successes
under
Director
Patel”
including
“the
capture
of
the
#8
fugitive
on
the
FBI’s
Top
Ten
Most
Wanted
list
within
just
three
months.”
(Notably,
he
doesn’t
mention
the
arrest
of
Charlie
Kirk’s
murderer,
which
Patel
apparently
bungled.)
A
“reasonable
and
responsible
pre-publication
investigation,
including
a
simple
request
to
the
FBI
for
relevant
documentary
evidence”
would
have
disproven
many
of
the
piece’s
claims,
Binnall
insists.
This
is
somewhat
belied
by
his
own
client
tweeting
the
FBI’s
blanket
denial
with
zero
offers
of
“documentary
evidence”
in
response
to
Fitzpatrick’s
pre-publication
request
for
comment.
To
be
fair,
Binnall
(and
his
client)
may
be
ever
so
slightly
confused
about
the
legal
standard
to
prove
defamation
of
a
public
figure.
They
seem
to
think
that
references
to
general
antipathy
paired
with
conclusory
allegations
that
the
reports
behaved
recklessly
are
good
enough
to
demonstrate
actual
malice.
We
haven’t
yet
seen
whatever
Binnall’s
magicking
up
for
Patel,
but
in
the
Robinson
case,
he
claimed
that
“Defendant
CNN
acted
with
actual
malice
and
reckless
disregard
for
the
truth,
as
demonstrated
by
Defendant’s
antipathy,
ill-will,
and
desire
to
inflict
harm
on
Lt.
Gov.
Robinson,
CNN’s
actual
knowledge
of
the
dubious
nature
and
timing
of
the
allegations,
its
use
of
unverifiable
data
to
corroborate
its
reporting,
its
reckless
failure
to
investigate,
and
its
knowledge
of
exculpatory
information
and
alternative
explanations
that
it
deliberately
omitted
from
the
CNN
Article.”
When
Binnall
sued
the
Lincoln
Project’s
Rick
Wilson
on
behalf
of
Mike
Flynn,
he
was
similarly
hand-wave-y
about
the
pleading
standard
—
with
predictable
results.
“Here,
the
onus
was
on
Flynn
to
prove
by
clear
and
convincing
evidence
that
Wilson
entertained
‘serious
doubts’
about
the
accuracy
of
the
articles
stating
that
at
least
some
believers
in
the
QAnon
conspiracy
think
that
Flynn
is
Q.
But
Flynn
did
not
submit
an
affidavit
or
other
record
evidence
demonstrating
Wilson’s
‘actual
malice,”
the
Florida
appeals
court
wrote,
adding
that
“If
Flynn
is
not
Q
(or
one
of
the
Qs),
then
it
presumably
would
not
have
been
hard
for
him
to
have
filed
an
affidavit
with
the
trial
court
to
that
effect.”
So
much
for
that
whole
“lay
up”
thing.
The
Atlantic’s
lawyers
are
unlikely
to
be
as
careless.
“The
Atlantic
is
nothing
but
diligent
and
we
have
amazing
lawyers
and
amazing
editors
and
I
stand
by
every
word,”
Fitzpatrick
told
MSNOW’s
Jen
Psaki
on
Sunday,
noting
that
neither
the
White
House
nor
the
Justice
Department
has
denied
her
reporting.
The
Atlantic’s
lawyers
are
also
aware
that
Binnall
is
suing
MSNOW
commentator
Frank
Figliuzzi
in
Texas
for
saying
that
Patel
had
“been
visible
at
nightclubs
far
more
than
he
has
been
on
the
seventh
floor
of
the
Hoover
building.”
And
they’re
aware
that
Nevada,
where
Patel
lives,
has
a
robust
anti-SLAPP
statute
which
applies
in
federal
court
under
Ninth
Circuit
precedent
—
unlike
the
federal
court
in
DC,
where
the
magazine
is
domiciled.
Whether
Binnall
knows
this
is
an
open
question.
Mike
Flynn
wound
up
paying
Rick
Wilson’s
legal
fees
after
Binnall
steered
him
into
the
wood
chipper
in
Florida.
But
projections
about
this
turkey
of
a
lawsuit
before
it’s
even
filed
may
be
giving
Patel
and
Binnall
too
much
credit.
Even
if
this
thing
had
a
prayer
in
hell
of
succeeding,
Patel
would
light
himself
on
fire
rather
than
sit
for
a
videotaped
deposition
about
his
drinking
habits.
The
purpose
of
this
exercise
is
to
prove
to
the
White
House
that
he’s
sticking
it
to
the
libs
and
hopefully
to
save
his
job.
That’s
why
he’s
telling
Bartiromo
that
he’s
just
about
to
round
up
the
perps
who
stole
the
2020
election.
Pay
no
attention
to
that
funky
condensation
on
your
screen,
that’s
just
the
Director’s
flop
sweat.
Patel
might
buy
himself
a
few
more
days
by
promising
that
he’s
just
about
to
lock
up
Trump’s
enemies,
but
sooner
or
later
—
and
probably
sooner
—
he’ll
be
back
to
hawking
MAGA
gear
to
the
rubes.
Which
is
a
good
thing,
because
that
dude
has
got
a
lot
of
legal
bills
to
pay.
Liz
Dye produces
the
Law
and
Chaos Substack and podcast. You
can
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