Judge Tosses Kash Patel Lawsuit About His Partying Habits

A federal judge has thrown out FBI Director Kash Patel’s defamation claim against former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi.

Patel claimed that Figliuzzi slandered him during interviews on MS NOW, where the legal commentator said that Patel had “been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor” of the bureau’s Washington headquarters. That, according to Patel, was not technically true.

Figliuzzi counterargued that the embellishment was sarcastic—a mode of protected speech—and the judge agreed.

“The Court finds that Figliuzzi’s statement is rhetorical hyperbole that cannot constitute defamation,” U.S. District Court Judge George Hanks Jr. wrote in his Tuesday decision. “Accordingly, Dir. Patel has failed to state a claim against Figliuzzi, and his lawsuit must be dismissed.”

Figliuzzi further claimed that the lawsuit was intended to silence him and other criticism of the FBI director, an abusive litigation strategy known as SLAPP, or strategic lawsuit against public participation.

But Figliuzzi’s tongue-in-cheek commentary wasn’t far from the truth: Patel has already sparked several scandals in his position due to his wild habits. Over the last year, Patel has wantonly flown around the country with FBI jets on the taxpayer’s dime. His trips have included a jaunt to Las Vegas, a trip to Nashville, and at least one widely publicized instance in which he flew to Penn State to visit his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, who was performing at a wrestling event.

Patel also ruffled feathers when he appeared at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, where he was caught on video chugging beer and whooping it up with the U.S. men’s hockey team. (He later insisted he was celebrating with his “friends.”)

But the former conspiracy podcaster is trying to litigate his way out of the reports. On Monday, Patel sued The Atlantic, demanding $250 million after the magazine issued a damning report citing numerous internal sources familiar with the director’s drinking habits, which reportedly go “far beyond the occasional beer” and may be contributing to Patel’s erratic, paranoid behavior.

“FBI officials and others in the administration have privately questioned whether alcohol played a role in the instances in which he shared inaccurate information about active law-enforcement investigations, including following the murder of Charlie Kirk,” The Atlantic reported.

Donald Trump, a famed teetotaller, has not been happy with the reports. The president reportedly called Patel after the Olympics stunt to express his unhappiness with the scene.

The result could soon see Patel out of the Trump administration entirely.

“We’re all just waiting for the word” that Patel has been fired, one FBI official told The Atlantic’s Sarah Fitzpatrick.