FBI Director Kash Patel sued The Atlantic to clear his name, and legal analyst Michael Popok was taken aback, as he may have just handed the magazine the keys to his phone.
On his MeidasTouch show Legal AF, Popok picked apart Patel's latest move in his $250 million defamation suit over an April article that alleged excessive drinking, unexplained absences and episodes of being unreachable — claims Patel has called "unequivocally categorically false."
The Atlantic asked Judge Emmet Sullivan to toss the case and to pause discovery until he rules, arguing it could be decided on the pleadings alone. But Patel pushed to keep the case moving, which Popok argued is a gift because discovery is exactly what would hurt Patel most, with depositions under oath, imaged phones and interviews with his own security detail.
"This is like a drowning man asking for another anchor to be thrown at him," Popok said.
If the case proceeds, The Atlantic could comb through the records behind its reporting, material one former prosecutor predicted is "unlikely to be pretty."
"You know who really wants discovery? Which is depositions and questions under oath and documents and emails and text messages and all of that. You know who loves and is rubbing their hands in glee at Kash Patel opposing a motion to stay discovery brought by The Atlantic? The Atlantic Magazine and its writer. I mean, I'm sure there were champagne corks that were popping when Kash Patel would not agree to stay discovery," said Popok.
The magazine has signaled it's ready.
"If Director Patel did not want to face this process, he should not have filed this suit," editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said.
The Atlantic's motion calls its allegations "inherently plausible," citing more than two dozen sources, including claims that Patel's detail once requested SWAT-style breaching equipment to reach him behind locked doors, and that he panicked when he wrongly believed he'd been fired. Patel denies all of it as a fabricated smear.
The Atlantic noted it's at least Patel's fifth defamation suit against a news outlet, and he has yet to win one.
