Until last month, Sarah Fitzpatrick was known mainly within Washington's press corps as a veteran investigative producer who had spent years behind the camera at CBS and NBC.

That changed on 17 April 2026, when she published an explosive story inThe Atlanticalleging that FBI Director Kash Patel's excessive drinking and erratic behaviour had become a national security concern inside the bureau.

Three weeks and one £188 million ($250 million) defamation lawsuit later, the FBI opened a criminal leak investigation focused on her, an MSNBC exclusive revealed. The probe is being handled by an insider-threats unit in Huntsville, Alabama. FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson denied the investigation exists.

Fitzpatrick's article, headlined 'The FBI Director Is MIA,' cited more than two dozen anonymous sources, including current and former FBI officials, Justice Department staff, and members of Congress. They described morning meetings pushed to the afternoon because Patel was reportedly incapacitated, a security detail that struggled to wake him on multiple occasions, and in at least one instance, a request for breaching equipment normally used by SWAT teams to reach the director behind locked doors.

EXCLUSIVE@TheAtlanticOn multiple occasions Patel’s security detail had difficulty waking him because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to info supplied to DOJ and White House officials. A request for “breaching equipment”was made because Patel had been unreachable behind…

Patel called the story a 'lie' and filed adefamation suiton 20 April in US District Court in Washington, DC, naming both the magazine and Fitzpatrick as defendants, CNBC reported.The Atlanticcalled the suit 'meritless' and said it would vigorously defend its journalists.

Fitzpatrick's career traces a path through some of the most rigorous newsrooms in American journalism. She started as a fact-checker at the CBS Evening News before becoming an associate producer at 60 Minutes, working on high-profile investigations and newsmaker interviews.

She spent several years at NBC News as senior investigative producer and story editor, overseeing long-term projects for MSNBC, Dateline, NBC Nightly News, and The Today Show. Her work there included a 2019 investigation into gender discrimination at the FBI's training academy.

Fitzpatrick holds a bachelor's degree in international affairs from George Washington University and a master's from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where she was a Stabile Fellow in investigative reporting. She teaches investigative documentary techniques at Columbia as an adjunct professor and joinedThe Atlanticin 2025 as a staff writer covering the Department of Justice and national security.

The reported investigation into Fitzpatrick sits within a broader pattern of confrontations between Patel's FBI and the press. In January 2026, agents conducted a court-authorised search ofThe Washington Postreporter Hannah Natanson's home, seizing computers and a phone as part of a separate classified information probe. The bureau also briefly investigatedNew York Timesreporter Elizabeth Williamson after she reported on Patel allegedly using FBI resources to transport his girlfriend.

Source: International Business Times UK