Patel reportedly probing aides over mortifying leaks

What happened

The FBI is investigating the reporter for The Atlantic who wrote an unflattering profile of Director Kash Patel and “more than two dozen former and current members” of Patel’s security detail to “find leakers among his team,” MS NOW reported Thursday. Patel “ordered the polygraphing” of the FBI staff and “has been described as being in panic mode to save his job,” MS NOW said, citing people briefed on the developments.

Patel sued The Atlantic and journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick for reporting last month that FBI personnel were concerned about his erratic behavior and excessive drinking. Fitzpatrick reported Wednesday that Patel travels with and hands out bourbon bottles engraved with “KASH PATEL FBI DIRECTOR” and the FBI shield.

Who said what

FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson declined to comment on the polygraph report but told MS NOW there was no such criminal leak investigation and Fitzpatrick “is not being investigated at all.” The personalized bourbon bottles “are part of a common practice in the FBI” of exchanging “commemorative items in formal gift settings,” he said. A former longtime senior FBI official “burst out laughing” when asked if previous FBI directors had distributed “personally branded liquor bottles,” Fitzpatrick reported.

What next?

If the FBI criminal leak investigation is “confirmed to be true,” Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in a statement, “we will defend The Atlantic and its staff vigorously.”