Trump News

Longtime GOP campaign strategist, and current thorn in Donald Trump’s side, Rick Wilson, pounced all over a report in The Atlantic that contained allegations from FBI insiders that Director Kash Patel has, at times, been a non-functional drunk unable to fulfill his duties.

In his Monday newsletter, the acerbic Wilson took joyful pokes at the Trump appointee, calling him “The Drunk in the Poodle Room,” before noting that the beleaguered law enforcement official hired a MAGA-related attorney who filed a defamation lawsuit in court on Monday aimed at obtaining a $250 million judgment.

On his Substack, Wilson reported that he was also once sued by Patel’s attorney, Jesse Binnall, who was representing Trump insider Michael Flynn at the time, which, Wilson wrote, ended with Flynn and his lawyer losing “... in spectacular fashion.”

Wilson wrote, Binnell is “a name that should ring a bell for anyone who followed Trump’s post-2020 legal clown show and who follows Against All Enemies.”

“Binnall isn’t just a bad bet,” he elaborated. “He’s a legal losing streak with a law degree. His defamation suit for Mark Robinson against CNN over the ‘Black Nazi' story Robinson withdrew it himself, calling it a ‘futile effort’ before the judge could even rule. His case for the Flynn family against CNN? Dismissed on summary judgment.”

“Devin Nunes hired him to sue Esquire for implying his Iowa dairy farm used undocumented labor…and discovery proved the farm did use undocumented labor,” he added.

Piling on, he predicted, based upon The Atlantic’s reputation, previous reporting on Patel’s antics, and Binnell’s “endless vomit of defamation suits and threats” that Wilson labeled “MAGA lawfare,” that The Atlantic “is going to tear him apart, and I’m here for it.”

“This is the guy Kash Patel is sending to war against The Atlantic’s legal team, a man whose entire defamation practice is apparently built on the theory that if he loses enough cases, the Supreme Court will eventually feel sorry for him and overturn New York Times v. Sullivan.,” he wrote before adding a sarcastic: “Good luck with that, Counselor.”

With Donald Trump dragging his feet on officially nominating a replacement for fire Attorney General Pam Bondi, there are growing concerns within the Department of Justice about the behind-the-scenes lobbying by prospective candidates.

The president was not clear about what led to Bondi’s ouster, but it is generally suspected that she was not quick enough, or successful enough, when it came to prosecuting the president’s enemies. There is also a belief that Trump was displeased with her for letting the Jeffrey Epstein files cast a continually darkening cloud over his second term.

According to reporting from the Washington Post, while acting Attorney General Todd Blanche appears positioned as the frontrunner for the permanent job, the behind-the-scenes lobbying and politicking is creating serious concerns within the Justice Department about the lengths candidates will go to "impress" the president.

Blanche is already cementing his dominance. The acting attorney general has quickly moved to leave his mark on Justice Department headquarters by pushing out Bondi's top spokespeople and installing a key ally in a top deputy position — moves clearly designed to signal control and readiness for the permanent role, the Post is reporting.

The Post's team of Jeremy Roebuck, Perry Stein, Salvador Rizzo and Theodoric Meyer are reporting the competition is intense. Various factions of Trump's MAGA coalition have rallied around alternatives, particularly Harmeet K. Dhillon, currently head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, and Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News personality now serving as U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.

"Neither Dhillon nor Pirro has been so forward as to openly suggest an interest in the job. But both have taken steps in recent days that are viewed by insiders as efforts to raise their profile and jockey for the president's attention," the Post report notes.

Dhillon's supporters are aggressively promoting her aggressive style. The Civil Rights Division head has distinguished herself through what supporters characterize as "pugilistic" leadership — from maligning critics on social media to launching investigations into DEI practices, state voter rolls, and antisemitism allegations.

"Her supporters say she best embodies the aggressive push for top-to-bottom change Trump has demanded from his Justice Department," according to the report.

The uncertainty is creating serious concern within DOJ ranks. The department is already struggling with claims of politicization and the abandonment of long-held norms. The ongoing leadership vacuum only intensifies worries about how far Trump's next permanent choice will go to prove loyalty to the president.