Under normal circumstances, when the FBI launches a criminal leak investigation, it’s because officials are concerned about the disclosure of state secrets or classified documents. Under Kash Patel, the bureau seems to have adopted a different set of standards. MS NOW reported:
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.
At issue is a brutal report published by The Atlantic last month that alleged FBI personnel have expressed concerns about the director’s unexplained absences and excessive drinking, which have reportedly alarmed colleagues and potentially created a security risk.
Patel denied the allegations, accused The Atlantic of being part of an elaborate journalistic conspiracy he equated with organized crime and filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against the magazine after the article’s publication.
Now, the FBI is apparently taking this to an additional level, launching a criminal leak investigation.
Time will tell what, if anything, comes of the investigation, though there’s a key detail that should not get lost in the shuffle.
As MS NOW’s Nicolle Wallace explained on the air, “If The Atlantic’s reporting is actually defamation, as Kash claims and seems prepared to argue in court, that would mean that Patel has the goods. He can prove that it is all false and it was printed with malice. But if that’s true, then it cannot also be true that a criminal leak investigation is necessary, the kind normally reserved for the disclosure classified state secrets and real information. Those two are in legal contradiction.”
It’s a critically important detail. Patel can argue The Atlantic’s report wasn’t true. He can argue the reporting was based on leaks from within the bureau. But to make both arguments simultaneously doesn’t make sense.
As Mother Jones’ David Corn summarized, “It’s only a leak if it’s true.”
For its part, an FBI spokesperson denied an investigation is underway, calling the reporting “completely false.” The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, meanwhile, said in a statement, “If confirmed to be true, this would represent an outrageous attack on the free press and the First Amendment itself. We will defend The Atlantic and its staff vigorously; we will not be intimidated by illegitimate investigations or other acts of politically motivated retaliation; we will continue to cover the FBI professionally, fairly, and thoroughly; and we will continue to practice journalism in the public interest.”
The post The contradiction at the heart of the purported FBI probe into leaks about Kash Patel appeared first on MS NOW.
