FBI Director Kash Patel, standing at a podium beside his boss Tuesday, publicly addressed current allegations that he has drank to extra, interfering with his duties.
“I’ve never been intoxicated on the job,” Patel informed a room stuffed with reporters Tuesday, after highlighting what he considers to be a string of regulation enforcement successes for the reason that begin of his tenure.
“This FBI director has been on the job twice as many days as every director before me,” Patel stated.
Standing beside him, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — whom Patel now stories to — additionally ridiculed the article, which stated folks had beforehand raised considerations with senior leaders in regards to the FBI director.
Blanche informed reporters he didn’t learn the story, however that it included “blatantly false” info.
Patel has beforehand denied the allegations made in a current story in The Atlantic and filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit towards the journal.
On Tuesday, although, he and Blanche had been probed on the claims by a room stuffed with reporters at an unrelated press convention.
The story, revealed final week, alleged Patel “alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences.”
Patel stated Tuesday he by no means listens “to the fake news mafia.”
“My concerns are completely around the anonymous reporting that comes forth constantly,” Blanche stated in regards to the article, including that it was “based on anonymous sources.”
The Atlantic has defended the work of reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick, who wrote the story.
“We stand by our reporting on Kash Patel, and we will vigorously defend The Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit,” a spokesperson stated Monday when the lawsuit was filed.
Fitzpatrick responded to the authorized threats in an interview with MS NOW on Friday night time, saying she stood “by every word of this reporting. We have excellent attorneys.”
The press convention Tuesday was held to tout the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center over its alleged use of paid informants in extremist groups.