The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) denied a report that it was investigating the reporter behind a scurrilous hit piece about FBI Director Kash Patel.
The piece by The Atlantic’s Sarah Fitzpatrick titled “The FBI Director Is MIA” depicted the FBI boss as a paranoid drunk who drinks “to the point of obvious intoxication” and that meetings have had to be rescheduled “as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights,” citing the standard anonymous sources in “six current and former officials and others familiar with Patel’s schedule.”
Patel not only vehemently denied the Jeffrey Goldberg-helmed outlet’s sleazy besmirching of his character but filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic. And according to MS NOW, the FBI has “launched a criminal leak investigation focusing on an Atlantic magazine journalist who wrote a deeply unflattering account last month of Director Kash Patel’s work habits.”
Exclusive with @carolleonnig: Sources tell us the FBI is investigating a journalist in an effort to find her sources for a critical article about Kash Patel https://t.co/dwrIzw7hSo
— Ken Dilanian (@KDilanianMSNOW) May 6, 2026
MS NOW’s report cites more unnamed sources in a blatant effort to shape the narrative and portray Fitzpatrick as a victim, just a heroic truth teller who is facing government retaliation for doing her job and not one of the unscrupulous smear merchants who have turned journalism into a dirty word.
“The sources said the so-called insider threat investigation is highly unusual because it did not stem from a disclosure of classified information and because it is focused on leaks to a reporter. The agents involved are part of an insider threats unit based in Huntsville, Alabama, the sources added,” according to the outlet.
“Typically, leak investigations look into government officials who may have disclosed state secrets or classified documents. Journalists who receive and publish such information have typically only been involved as potential witnesses,” the report stated.
MSNBC may have changed its name, but the left-wing propaganda factory’s content is as suspect as it has always been, and the FBI reacted to the “bombshell” by calling it out as bunk.
“There is no criminal leak investigation focused on Sarah Fitzpatrick or her reporting,” FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs Ben Williamson said in a statement. “There is no national security investigation focused on @S_Fitzpatrick or her reporting. There are no agents assigned to any such matter because the matter does not exist.”
BREAKING: @FBI on-the-record statement @TheAtlantic via Spokesman Ben Williamson.
“There is no criminal leak investigation focused on Sarah Fitzpatrick or her reporting.
There is no national security investigation focused on @S_Fitzpatrick or her reporting.
There are no…
— Catherine Herridge (@C__Herridge) May 8, 2026
“The journalist is not being investigated — false. Every time there’s a publication of false claims by anonymous sources that gets called out, the media plays the victim via investigations that do not exist,” Williamson previously said of the wild allegation.
The first giveaway that the piece was oozing with problems should have been its byline: Ken Dilanian, a serial spreader of hoaxes, including the Russigate scam. But the lying media ran with it anyway.
Then there is Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, a notorious fabulist who seems to be desperately trying to hide the alleged defamation of Patel behind the First Amendment.
“If confirmed to be true, an FBI criminal leak investigation targeting our reporter would represent an outrageous attack on the free press and the First Amendment itself. We will defend The Atlantic staff vigorously; we will not be intimidated by illegitimate investigations or other acts of politically motivated retaliation; we will continue to cover the FBI professionally, fairly, and thoroughly; and we will continue to practice journalism in the public interest,” Goldberg said in a statement.
MS NOW’s dubious report included a similar statement from Williamson.
“This is completely false. No such investigation like this exists and the reporter you mention is not being investigated at all,” he said. “Every time there’s a publication of false claims by anonymous sources that gets called out, the media plays the victim via investigations that do not exist.”
