Kash Patel’s lawsuit against the Atlantic has already backfired, big time.

Had the FBI director just put out a statement denouncing the magazine’s piece on him, the controversy would have vanished in two days.

But by filing the $250-million suit against what he calls a “defamatory hit piece,” he turned it into a top story on cable news, especially MS NOW, with constant coverage all day Monday, most of it unfavorable.

In other words, Patel shined a white-hot spotlight on accusations of excessive drinking and disappearances to a vastly larger audience than would have heard about them.  

FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL FILES $250 MILLION LAWSUIT AGAINST THE ATLANTIC OVER ‘DEFAMATORY HIT PIECE’

“We will vigorously defend the Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” a magazine spokeswoman said.

While Patel is free to sue anyone he wants, there are two main reasons this is a seriously bad idea.

As a public figure, he would have to prove that the Atlantic acted with malice – that is, either knowingly publishing something false, or showing reckless disregard for whether or not it’s true. The Atlantic is a liberal magazine, but has serious reporting chops.

KASH PATEL DOUBLES DOWN ON LAWSUIT AGAINST THE ATLANTIC, SLAMS OUTLET AS ‘FAKE NEWS MAFIA’

Beyond that, Patel would open himself up to discovery, meaning the defendants could have access to all kinds of emails, texts and documents, some of which surely be unflattering. He could be deposed under oath. He would have the same rights.

The malice question for public figures has been the legal standard since a 1964 Supreme Court ruling. Now I suppose this conservative court could overturn that. But I don’t think this lawsuit will even make it to trial.

The Atlantic reporter, Sarah Fitzpatrick, pointed to “more than two dozen people I interviewed about Patel’s conduct, including current and former FBI officials, staff at law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, hospitality-industry workers, members of Congress, political operatives, lobbyists, and former advisers,” all on an anonymous basis.

Patel’s suit says that despite his denials, he was given just two hours to respond to the magazine’s list of questions.

He provided a statement, which the article included, and the denials were repeated by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said “Director Patel remains a critical player on the administration’s law and order team.”

In the article, Patel is described as having a “freak-out” when he couldn’t sign on to the internal computer system, telling staff members he had been fired. It turned out to be a glitch.

FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL VOWS TO TAKE THE ATLANTIC TO COURT OVER ‘DEFAMATORY’ REPORT

Among the allegations in the Fitzpatrick piece:

“Several officials told me that Patel’s drinking has been a recurring source of concern across the government. They said that he is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication…Early in his tenure, meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled for later in the day as a result of his alcohol-fueled nights, six current and former officials and others familiar with Patel’s schedule told me.

“On multiple occasions in the past year, members of his security detail had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to information supplied to Justice Department and White House officials.” 

The Atlantic described Patel’s drinking as “no secret. While on official travel to Italy in February, he was filmed chugging beer with the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team following their gold-medal victory. The incident prompted the president—who does not drink and whose brother died following a long struggle with alcoholism—to call the FBI director to convey his unhappiness, according to two officials familiar with the call.” 

What’s more, the piece says, “Patel has led a purge of people who he believes are anti-Trump ‘conspirators’ or ‘enemies’ within the FBI. This has included firing people, opening internal investigations, and pressuring agents to quit when they pushed back—or were perceived to have pushed back—against Patel’s demands or questioned their legality.”

Patel, a onetime congressional aide, is a lawyer and ontime public defender who held various posts during Trump’s first term, and in 2022 became a director of the Trump Media & Technology Group.

In his lawsuit, the FBI chief said the article is “replete with false and obviously fabricated allegations designed to destroy Director Patel’s reputation and drive him from office…Director Patel does not drink to excess.”

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Under Editor Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic won its first Pulitzer Prize and three straight National Magazine Awards for general excellence. Adweek named him Editor of the Year and last year he won the John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism.

It was Goldberg, you’ll recall, who was accidentally copied on a Signal chat in which War Secretary Pete Hegseth shared classified war information. But he cooperated with the administration on what could fairly be published.

Although Trump attacked Goldberg last year as a “sleazebag,” he later invited him and two reporters to an Oval Office interview.

The president, who was trying to get a favorable cover story, had posted that he was meeting with Goldberg “of all people.”

“It was “my way of explaining to people that you’re up here, because most people would say, ‘Why are you doing that?’ I’m doing that because there is a certain respect,” he told Goldberg.

The president, of course, has sued numerous news organizations, winning settlements of at least $16 million apiece from CBS and ABC.

In that vein, Patel’s lawsuit may not necessarily be about winning.

The FBI director may simply be going to court as a way of forcing the magazine to hire lawyers and as part of the Trump campaign to intimidate the media and perhaps soften or sink highly critical stories. (And yet the president talks to journalists virtually every day, increasingly takes their calls, and is going to his first White House Correspondents Dinner.) 

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The Atlantic is owned by a company founded by Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve Jobs’ widow, who is the lead investor and chair of the magazine. She has spent about $5 billion, roughly half her inherited fortune, on such matters as environmental and social justice causes. Deep pockets don’t seem to be a problem.

Kash Patel has broadcast serious questions about his conduct, even as he denies them, by going the lawsuit route. All he’s accomplished so far is putting the allegations on a huge national stage. 

The U.S. military is launching a new autonomous warfare command to deploy cutting-edge unmanned systems across Latin America, marking a first-of-its-kind move by a combatant command.

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) commander Gen. Francis Donovan said Tuesday he ordered the creation of the SOUTHCOM Autonomous Warfare Command to support national security priorities and regional efforts.

“From the seafloor to space and across the cyber domain, we fully intend to leverage the clear superiority of the American defense ecosystem by deploying cutting-edge innovation and working ever closer with our enduring partners in the region to outmatch those who threaten our collective peace and security,” Donovan said in a statement.

According to SOUTHCOM, the new command will employ “autonomous, semi-autonomous, and unmanned platforms and systems to counter threats and challenges across domains, linking tactical missions to long-term strategic effects.”

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SAWC will also work with U.S. allies in the region and advance missions including targeting narcoterrorist and cartel networks and responding to large-scale natural disasters.

Donovan said the region is well-suited for innovation and collaboration with partners.

“Our geographic area of responsibility has a wide range of conditions, varied terrain, and diverse operational environments that make it an ideal setting in which to innovate. It is also a region with very capable and committed security partners who lean forward, embrace technologies and are very eager to work collaboratively with us to support regional stability in new and effective ways,” he said.

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SOUTHCOM is responsible for military operations in Central and South America and the Caribbean, including counter-narcotics missions aimed at disrupting drug trafficking networks that threaten U.S. interests.

The U.S. military has carried out dozens of strikes in recent months on suspected drug-smuggling vessels as part of a broader campaign to dismantle cartel-linked trafficking operations.

In a written posture statement to Congress earlier this year, Donovan said he aimed to leverage emerging technologies, telling lawmakers he intended “to capitalize on next generation capabilities like unmanned platforms, AI integration, and commercial tools to better enable us and our partners to counter … threats together.”

In March, Donovan told an Armed Services Committee member he aimed to build cost-effective, modernized forces for SOUTHCOM’s mission, including autonomous systems and human-machine teaming, “to greatly increase lethality, all-domain awareness, and data sharing for U.S. and partner forces.”

SOUTHCOM said it will work with the military services and the War Department’s Defense Autonomous Warfare Group (DAWG) to identify capabilities needed for the new command to begin operations and integrate into its mission.

Remarkably, the 2026 college football season will be the fifth year for Lincoln Riley as head coach of the USC Trojans. 

When Riley came over from Oklahoma, he brought an exceptional resume. Over five seasons in Norman, he put up a 55-10 record, coached two Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks and won four consecutive Big 12 Conference titles. 

He had three consecutive College Football Playoff appearances, though never advanced to the National Championship game. Thanks in large part to a heartbreaking loss to the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2018 Rose Bowl. And therein lies the one thing missing from Riley’s list of accomplishments: a championship. 

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While Oklahoma is a storied program in its own right, the move to USC brought with it championship-level expectations. Matching his high-octane offense with SC’s recruiting prowess and location in Southern California was supposed to get the Trojans back to the top of the college football world.

Well, SC has not returned to the top of the college football world. Which is why it’s so surprising that Lincoln Riley is telling the media he expects the program to be entering a “championship window.”

In a new interview with On3’s Wilson Alexander, Riley said he believes that it’s been “a lot of work” to get there, but they’ve now gotten “this window opened.” 

“USC had to get really serious about being great in the sport again,” he explained. “
I give the school administration, everybody, credit. They have.”

“Taking this over, you knew you had to go fight like hell just to try to get this window opened,” Riley said. “And we’re at a point right now where there’s a lot to be excited about and a lot in front of us. It’s been a lot of work for a lot of people, a lot of commitment from a lot of people to get there, and it should be a lot of fun these next few years.”

“We came here to win championships,” he continued. “
A lot of us have been fortunate enough to be a part of a lot of championships. We certainly didn’t come here for anything less. We’ve got to go buckle down and improve and really come together, but there’s the makings of a championship-level football team in that building right now.”

Riley’s critics would point to several examples of head coaches taking over programs and immediately turning them around. Curt Cignetti at Indiana, for example, went 16-0 and won a title in his second season. Kenny Dillingham took ASU to the playoff in his second year in Phoenix.

Those situations, though, do have some differences with Riley’s time at SC. Indiana had significant financial backing to bring in a top transfer portal class, and Dillingham had the advantage of a “weaker” Big 12 Conference relative to the Big Ten or the Pac-12. SC fell behind quickly in the NIL era, only recently putting its financial muscle into recruiting and signing top classes. 

Realistically, though, with a tough schedule, and the vaunted 2026 recruiting class needing time to develop, 2027 might be a better opportunity for SC to really compete for a title. But given the disappointing results in 2023 and 2024, Riley might need to win nine to 10 games to even get there.