Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has yet to reach a settlement or a favorable jury verdict from the cases. Credit... Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times SKIP TO CONTENT SKIP TO SITE INDEX Section Navigation Kash Patel Keeps Suing the Press The F.B.I. director, following a strategy from President Trump, has filed six defamation lawsuits against news media companies and commentators in nearly seven years.
Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has yet to reach a settlement or a favorable jury verdict from the cases. Credit... Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times Listen · 8:50 min Share full article By Erik Wemple June 14, 2026 In 2019, Kash Patel, then a White House aide, objected to how news outlets portrayed his role in President Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. “It’s time that I began fighting back,” Mr.
Patel said at the time. He sued Politico, The New York Times and CNN. In 2023, Mr. Patel, then a roving pro-Trump commentator, took offense to the work of a blogger who had bashed his record and called him a “chud,” a derogatory term progressives use to describe MAGA followers.
He sued the blogger, Jim Stewartson, for $10 million in damages. And in April, Mr. Patel, now the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, seethed over an article in The Atlantic that reported alarm among some colleagues over his “erratic” behavior and alleged heavy drinking.
He soon sued the publication, demanding $250 million in damages. Mr. Patel has yet to reach a settlement or a favorable jury verdict in the cases. Each of the news organizations he has sued has defended its journalism and said it was protected by the First Amendment.
ADVERTISEMENT SKIP ADVERTISEMENT But the strategy is a familiar one. Mr. Trump, the man who appointed Mr. Patel to lead the F.B.I., has long turned to the courts when faced with unfavorable press coverage. And perhaps no one in his two administrations has followed his lead as closely as Mr.
Patel, who has filed at least six defamation lawsuits against news media companies and commentators in nearly seven years. In some of the cases, Mr. Patel filed strongly worded complaints only to allow them to languish in the ups and downs of civil litigation — a trajectory that some legal experts said raised questions about his objectives.
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