'Did Kash Patel read his lawsuit?' Expert says FBI chief's legal action kneecapped denial

FBI Director Kash Patel has sued The Atlantic over a bombshell story alleging he has frequently been drinking on the job, absent from work, and increasingly paranoid about getting fired from the administration.

But his denial of a key part of the story is already contradicted, noted All Rise News' Adam Klasfeld on X — by what he admits in his own legal complaint.

Specifically, Patel has publicly denied the incident reported in The Atlantic story in which he was briefly locked out of his computer system, then had a meltdown because he assumed that meant he was fired, until IT staff were able to get it back online.

"Did Kash Patel read his own lawsuit?" asked Klasfeld. "When asked why he was locked out of his computer — as The Atlantic reported and Patel *admitted* in his lawsuit — Patel denied it happened: 'I was never locked out of my systems,' he just claimed."

The problem, Klasfeld noted, is that Patel's complaint acknowledges the incident happened — it just disputes his panicked reaction to it.

"The Article's assertions that on April 10, 2026, Director Patel 'panicked, frantically' announcing he had been fired, engaged in a 'freak-out,' and 'is deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy,' are false," stated the suit. "On April 10, 2026, Director Patel had a routine technical problem logging into a government system, which was quickly fixed. Director Patel's sole focus is on carrying out the administration's law enforcement priorities. Prior to publication, the FBI expressly informed Defendants that the firing rumor was a 'made-up rumor,' and that the 'freak-out' and job-jeopardy claims were fabricated."

All of this comes as other legal observers cast doubt on the merits of Patel's lawsuit, which echoes previous legal actions he has taken against similar stories that have not gone particularly well.