Kash Patel ESCALATES feud with INSANE announcement

In yet another instance of an. administration official taking aim at. the media, Kash Patel sued The Atlantic. today for $250 million in a defamation. lawsuit over a bombshell investigation. that the magazine published last Friday. So, let's start with what The Atlantic. reported because it's important to. understand exactly what's in this piece. and who said it. Now, this wasn't some. anonymous tip or some single disgruntled. employee. Reporter Sara Fitzpatrick. spoke to more than two dozen people, current and former FBI officials, intelligence staff, political.

operatives, and others who described. Kash Patel as {quote} erratic and his. behavior as {quote} a national security. vulnerability. Fitzpatrick wrote {quote}. several officials told me that Patel's. drinking has been a recurring source of. concern across the government. They said. he is known to drink to the point of. obvious intoxication in many cases at. the private club Ned's in Washington, D.C. while in the presence of White. House and other administration staff. He. is also known to drink to excess at the. Poodle Room in Las Vegas where he. frequently spends parts of his weekend. Early in his tenure, meetings and. briefings had be rescheduled for later.

in the day as the result of his. alcohol-fueled nights, six current and. former officials and others familiar. with Patel's schedule told me. But it. gets worse. According to information. provided to Justice Department and White. House officials, members of Patel's. security detail had trouble waking him. up on multiple occasions because he was. {quote} seemingly intoxicated. He was so. hard to reach behind locked doors that. his team even requested breach equipment. commonly used by SWAT teams for rapid. force entry into buildings. And then. there's this detail which serves as the. article's opening anecdote. Patel was.

locked out of an internal computer. system at the FBI on April 10th which. convinced the FBI director that he had. been fired by the White House and. prompted him to call aids and allies in. a panic. Now, he wasn't fired, he just. couldn't log in, but that's the level of. paranoia and instability that we're. dealing with here. The Atlantic reported. that Patel has himself {quote} expressed. that he believes he is about to be fired. or that it is imminent and that {quote}. there are senior administration. officials who are openly discussing who. will be the next FBI director.

And look, I obviously can't directly. confirm or deny The Atlantic's. reporting. I do presume that when it. comes to a reputable news outlet versus. a habitual liar in the administration of. a more habitual liar, it's clear who I. would put my own trust in. And then of. course, I can't imagine that this. doesn't hurt Patel's argument just a tad. bit. >> [music].

>> But hey, other than that video of Kash. Patel chugging his beer like a. 19-year-old frat boy, I'm sure he's a. total angel. Now, before we get into the. lawsuit, I want to zoom out for just a. second because Patel's response to this. story was as revealing as the story. itself. The article dropped on Friday. night. By Sunday morning, Kash Patel was. on Fox News with who else but Maria. Bartiromo, not to announce the lawsuit, but to do something much more. calculated. >> ask you about the nation because every.

time I see President Trump, he says this. repeatedly that the election was rigged. in 2020. I mean he says it all the time, we all know that and it's almost getting. lost because he says it so much. You've. been at the FBI now 14 months. Have you. done anything about that and do you have. anything to tell us about that? Absolutely, Maria. Look, um I've been with the president nearly. since day one on this. As I as I told. you earlier, I was the one that led the. effort with folks like Trey Gowdy, Johnny Ratcliffe, and Devin Nunes to. expose the corruption um that tried to.

thwart President Trump's first. presidential election run and we saw the. FISA abuses there. And I lived through. it and the media came at me then, too. That just shows you that when you're. over the target, you keep pummeling the. target because the media's going to try. and pummel you. We are not going to take. this and have not taken this lying down. We did already indict. former Director Comey and that's going. through the judicial process, but we. also at this FBI, even though we. uncovered what we uncovered back in the. House Intel days, I had to come in here. and find rooms that they hid from the. world. I had to come in here and find. access on our computer systems in.

restricted and prohibited case files. that they purposely put in places for no. one to see and find. We have found all. this information. We are working with. our Department of Justice partners and I. am never going to let this go because. they not only have personally attacked. the presidency of the United States and. President Trump, but they tried to. thwart our elections and rig the entire. system. And I and that is not something. that is going to stop on that is not. something I'm going to allow on my. watch. But you just have to remember, they built this disease temple over 20. and 30 years. We've got all the.

evidence. I can announce on your show. that we've got all the information we. need. We're working with our prosecutors. at Department of Justice and Attorney. General Todd Blanche and we are going to. be making arrests and it's coming and I. promise you it's coming soon. Now, I. want you to think about this for a. second because the timing here is not. subtle. Kash Patel is the director of. the FBI. His job is suddenly in. question. The Atlantic just publishes a. story with 20-plus sources saying he's. drunk, he's unreachable, he's erratic, and his response is to go on Fox News.

and promise mass arrests over a. 6-year-old election claim that has been. investigated, litigated, and rejected in. court over 60 times. It is the single. most transparent political life. preserver I have ever seen thrown in. real time. He's not announcing arrests. because there's some real case, because. there's merit here. He is announcing. arrests because Donald Trump's number. one obsession is the 2020 election and. Patel is waving that obsession around. like a flare gun while his career is. going down in flames. In fact, I asked. Mark Elias about this exact point.

Here's what he had to say. Donald Trump. cares more about election nihilism than. anything else. So, if you're Kash Patel. and you're trying to recover from, you. know, the devastating press coverage you. received. If you're Todd Blanche and. you're trying to get the job that Pam. Bondi lost, what you do is you feed the. boss the the meal he wants to eat and. it's going to be junk food and it's not. going to be good for you him or anybody. else, but that junk food is election. nihilism. It is lies. It is conspiracy. theories. It is right-wing.

disinformation, misinformation uh spread. about the 2016 election, the 2020. election, you know, cockamamie theories. about, you know, deep state uh. investigations uh. of Donald Trump and all of that right. now is is grinding away in a federal. courthouse in Florida. So, my reaction. is everybody who cares about democracy, you got to be paying attention in the. week ahead in the weeks ahead because. there's the FBI director, seemingly.

sober by the way, Brian. You know, it's. early in the morning with Maria. Bartiromo, no reason why the FBI. director wouldn't be sober. I'm just. saying. Seemed to be in his right mind. Uh you know, talking about presumably. stuff that the FBI director is not even. supposed to be talking about which is. imminent uh investi you know, pending. investigations and imminent uh arrests. But everybody needs to take this. seriously. So, please do me a favor and. do what I do which is I subscribe to. this channel because I get a lot of my. news information analysis from what. Brian uh talks to his guests on. Uh he's.

got a great series with uh with Glenn. Kirschner who covers particularly these. criminal cases. So, go ahead and. subscribe to that right now. In other. words, Patel knows exactly what he's. doing and more importantly, who he's. doing it for. Now, here's what I want to point out. about the lawsuit itself because I think. that there is a piece of this story that. genuinely doesn't get enough attention. when these things tend to happen. Patel. is suing for $250 million in damages and. the lawsuit claims that The Atlantic. acted with {quote} actual malice which.

is the legal standard that public. officials have to meet in defamation. cases. That is a very high bar. The. Supreme Court had established it in 1964. in New York Times versus Sullivan and. courts have repeatedly used that. precedent, that standard, to dismiss. cases exactly like this one. But here's the thing that legal experts. are quietly noting about this case. If. this case does survive those early. hurdles and reaches the discovery phase. when both sides exchange evidence and. take sworn testimony, The Atlantic would. have the same opportunity to take. discovery to confirm the accuracy of its.

own reporting which would include taking. sworn testimony not just of Patel, but. of others with knowledge of the. underlying facts. In other words, by. filing this lawsuit, Kash Patel is. potentially opening himself up to sworn. depositions, subpoenas, and compelled. testimony from every single person who. knows anything about his behavior, presumably including the same people who. spoke to The Atlantic in this piece. That is a significant gamble for. somebody whose entire defense is that. these stories are fabricated. The. reporter that he's suing, Sara.

Fitzpatrick, isn't backing down. When. confronted with the legal threats, she. said simply {quote} I stand by every. word of this reporting. The Atlantic. called the lawsuit {quote} meritless and. said they will vigorously defend it. So, if Patel's hope was to chill them into. submission, to get them to capitulate. like so many others in the media do, it. doesn't look like it's working. But let me bring this back to the bigger. picture here because what's happening. with Kash Patel isn't just some. Washington drama story. It is a story. about what happens when you fill one of. the most important, powerful law.

enforcement positions in the world based. on loyalty rather than competence. Think about what we actually know from. the public record, setting The. Atlantic's reporting aside entirely. We. know that while the FBI was. investigating multiple urgent security. issues, including the Secret Service. shooting dead an armed man who entered. Mar-a-Lago, Patel was in a locker room. in Milan, Italy chugging a beer and. spraying it over the members of the. Americans men's hockey team. We know. that Donald Trump was disappointed in. Patel's behavior at the Winter Olympics. and conveyed that displeasure directly,

chastising him not only for the. drinking, but using a government. aircraft to fly to Milan. We know that. Patel himself, before becoming FBI. director, publicly criticized his. predecessor Christopher Wray for using. the FBI jet for personal reasons, suggesting that it should be grounded. only for him to do exactly that. So, the. video at the Olympics, the government. jet, the now viral images of the FBI. director chugging beer while his agency. was dealing with active security. incidents, none of that is disputed. That is all on camera. It all actually. happened. And it happened before The.

Atlantic even published a single word of. their own story. So, The Atlantic's. reporting, sourced to more than two. dozen people, describes a director who. compounds that pattern daily. Reportedly. drunk at DC and Las Vegas clubs, reportedly having his meetings. rescheduled around hangovers, reportedly. having a security detail that can't wake. him up, reportedly using SWAT breach. equipment, reportedly panicking over a. computer login glitch. You have senior. administration officials inside his own. administration openly discussing his. replacement while he's still in the job.

That is not the profile of a man running. the most important law enforcement. agency in America. That is a profile of. a man who got the job because the. president wanted a loyalist, not a. director. And whose primary skill set is. not leadership, but performance. Going. on Maria Bartiromo and promising 2020. election arrests he cannot describe, suing a magazine for $250 million with a. legal theory that experts say is. unlikely to survive, telling the camera. to, quote, "Bring it on and come at me". like a 10th grader on the JV wrestling.

team. It's all a show. And while the. show goes on, the FBI, with all of its. ongoing responsibilities, all of its. field offices, all of the actual work of. protecting this country, is being run by. a man whose own colleagues told the. reporter on record, quote, "This is what. keeps me up at night.". >> [music]. >> Before you go, I'm very excited to. announce that I've written a new book. titled The Day After: How to wield power. in a post-Trump world. The book explores. what is, in my opinion, the single most.

important theme that we're dealing with. in politics today and moving forward: power. Specifically, how Republicans. abuse it and how Democrats refuse to. wield it. This book explains how we got. here and, more importantly, how we. should finally wield power if we're. lucky enough to get it back. It is the. blueprint for progressives who want to. do far more than just restore the status. quo. Please pre-order today by following. the link on this screen. You can grab. yours from any of the major retailers. like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, or. scroll down on the page and get a copy. from an independent bookstore closest to.

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