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MS NOW Claims FBI Has Opened Investigation Into Atlantic Writer Who Did Hit Piece on Kash Patel

Brett T.
Brett T.  |  6:30 PM on May 06, 2026

MS NOW is reporting that the FBI has opened an investigation into Atlantic reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick, who wrote the hit piece alleging that FBI Director Kash Patel was often intoxicated at work and AWOL. Fitzpatrick said she spoke to two dozen unnamed sources in putting together the piece. Patel filed a $250 million defamation suit against Fitzpatrick and The Atlantic.

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The investigation into Fitzpatrick involves allegations of a criminal leak.

It's going to be impossible for the media to extricate this investigation from the hit piece Fitzpatrick recently published, but let's see how MS NOW's "Fusion" Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig fare:

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.

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.

…

An investigation could be used by FBI agents to obtain her phone records, run her name and information through FBI databases and examine her social media contacts. It was not known what investigative steps agents have taken in the case.

There is deep concern about this approach among some of the FBI agents assigned to the matter, said the sources, who were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about a sensitive matter. 

“They know they are not supposed to do this,” one source said. “But if they don’t go forward, they could lose their jobs.  You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

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Nine paragraphs deep into the story:

FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson denied the investigation to MS NOW, saying, “This is completely false. No such investigation like this exists and the reporter you mention is not being investigated at all.

“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,” he added.

Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey "Suckers and Losers" Goldberg issued a statement saying that, if true, the investigation would represent an outrageous attack on press freedom.

Staff writer David A. Graham already has a piece up at The Atlantic called "A Dangerous New Attack on Press Freedom," even though The Atlantic's only evidence of an investigation is Dilanian and Leonnig's piece.

Graham writes:

According to a report this morning from MS NOW, the FBI has opened a criminal investigation focusing on my Atlantic colleague Sarah Fitzpatrick, related to an article she published last month about Director Kash Patel. Drawing on some two dozen sources, Fitzpatrick reported that people inside the administration and the bureau are deeply concerned about what they described as Patel’s unexplained absences and excessive drinking.

…

But MS NOW reports that some of the FBI agents assigned to the case are upset. “They know they are not supposed to do this,” a source told the network. “But if they don’t go forward, they could lose their jobs. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

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All of this pearl-clutching comes from an exclusive by Dilanian and Leonnig, whose source is "two people familiar with the matter."

So, a spokesperson at the FBI has already said MS NOW's story is "completely false," but MS NOW and The Atlantic are using it to relitigate their accusations of Patel's alleged excessive drinking. It's having the desired effect.

Let's see if any other media besides The Atlantic picks up and runs with MS NOW's exclusive report:

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