The FBI has launched a criminal leak investigation focusing on an Atlantic magazine journalist who wrote a deeply unflattering account last month of Director Kash Patel’s work habits, two people familiar with the matter told MS NOW.
The sources said the so-called insider threat investigation is highly unusual because it did not stem from a disclosure of classified information and because it is focused on leaks to a reporter. The agents involved are part of an insider threats unit based in Huntsville, Alabama, the sources added.
Typically, leak investigations look into government officials who may have disclosed state secrets or classified documents. Journalists who receive and publish such information have typically only been involved as potential witnesses.
The journalist, Sarah Fitzpatrick, cited two dozen anonymous sources ina detailed storyreporting that Patel’s alcohol consumption and erratic behavior had caused deep concern among FBI officials. Patel was known to drink to the point of intoxication, she reported, adding that on occasion his security detail had trouble waking him in the morning.
Patel immediatelysued The Atlantic, saying the story contained falsehoods and claiming he had been defamed. The magazine and Fitzpatrick stood by her reporting, saying they had received additional corroboration after it was published.
An investigation could be used by FBI agents to obtain her phone records, run her name and information through FBI databases and examine her social media contacts. It was not known what investigative steps agents have taken in the case.
There is deep concern about this approach among some of the FBI agents assigned to the matter, said the sources, who were granted anonymity in order to speak freely about a sensitive matter.
“They know they are not supposed to do this,” one source said. “But if they don’t go forward, they could lose their jobs. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson denied the investigation to MS NOW, saying, “This is completely false. No such investigation like this exists and the reporter you mention is not being investigated at all.
“Every time there’s a publication of false claims by anonymous sources that gets called out, the media plays the victim via investigations that do not exist,” he added.
Source: Drudge Report
