Kash Patel's Personalized Bourbon Stash
Comments
arjie
malbs
I love that Sarah Fitzpatrick has absolutely doubled down on this, gets sued, drops another article, "come at me bro"
throwworhtthrow
Context:
The FBI Director Is MIA - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47813001 (18 days ago)
F.B.I. Director Sues The Atlantic Over Article Claiming Excessive Drinking - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/us/politics/kash-patel-at... (15 days ago)
FBI investigating leaks to journalist who wrote explosive article on Kash Patel - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48037332 (8 hours ago)
3eb7988a1663
Can someone explain Patel's defamation lawsuit? I have no reason to doubt the Atlantic story about his drinking. If he sues and publicly loses, that is significantly more humiliating than quietly letting the story be forgotten.
bdangubic
Suing is highly publicized thing, the "he dropped the lawsuit" or "lawsuit was dismissed" will be Friday news dump not covered by anything or anyone (especially now when one party control most if not all media - including "social" media)
jandrese
Exactly right. The right wing media will be all over the lawsuit and the X crowd will take the opportunity to dunk on the "liebral media" and how this proves that journalists can't be trusted because they make stuff up like Kash Patel's drinking.
They will be silent months later when the lawsuit is quietly dropped. The only thing the readers will remember is how the evil liberals got what was coming to them. These are the people who still think the Muller report "totally exonerated" the Trump administration.
throw0101a
> The right wing media will be all over the lawsuit and the X crowd will take the opportunity to dunk on the "liebral media" and how this proves that journalists can't be trusted because they make stuff up like Kash Patel's drinking.
After The Atlantic published their story on the military group chats and were attacked by the Administration their subscription numbers purportedly went up:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_government_group...
"There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about." — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
tekla
Intimidation.
3eb7988a1663
The calculus still fails for me. If this was a podunk Youtuber, sure, intimidate away. The Atlantic has been in the press business for a long time, and is not going to publish a piece against a vindictive administration without being confident in the reporting. They are prepared to defend themselves against a baseless suit.
tekla
Well the Government has effectively infinite resources, versus some media outlet.
You also forget that the point is to signal to the base/allies that you are fighting. The fact that the lawsuit didn't immediately get tossed out is a signal that your claims might have merit (even though thats not really how it works)
throw0101a
> Well the Government has effectively infinite resources, versus some media outlet.
The Atlantic is (co-?)owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerson_Collective
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantic#Ownership_and_edi...
I would guess they have some resources too.
> The fact that the lawsuit didn't immediately get tossed out is a signal that your claims might have merit (even though thats not really how it works)
The Atlantic may have not filed a motion to dismiss so they could go to discovery to dig up more info on how the FBI is being run.
gowld
Kayfabe for the base and the ignorant middle.
jcgrillo
There's nothing wrong with Woodford but... idk if I was going to have a bottle engraved with my name maybe find something more interesting? Strange behavior though...
ugh123
Guy is a fucking joke
themafia
> he believes that many agents would worry that if the director offers you a bottle, and “you aren’t on board on receiving it enthusiastically, you are getting polygraphed for loyalty.”
You work at a place that can polygraph you for loyalty? And you're defending anything about this?
tclancy
A. it shows you what deep thinkers the whole place is regardless of the person in charge right now (who is incredibly odious)
B. Of course _you_ would say that.
Isn't this just a strange form of Challenge Coin[0]? I always found those odd and this seems odd in the same vein as opposed to a new kind of odd. It being alcohol is perhaps mildly interesting.
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge_coin