Judge Tosses Bugsy Patel’s Defamation Suit

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

A day after FBI Director Kash Patel filed a $250 million lawsuit against The Atlantic, he has lost a different defamation claim, against news analyst and pundit Frank Figliuzzi. U.S. District Judge George Hanks Jr. dismissed Patel's lawsuit against Figliuzzi, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, who has been an analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. Patel sued after Figliuzzi, appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe last year, said of the FBI director, "Well, reportedly, he's been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building."

Posted by reinheitsgebot at 12:55 AM | 6 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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One would think that the leader of the FBI would have a better grasp on the law.

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-04-22 01:03 AM | Reply

The Atlantic claim to have at least 10 internal sources. The only question about his suit against them is will he still be FBI director by the time a court tosses the case.

#2 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2026-04-22 01:12 AM | Reply

One would think that the leader of the FBI would have a better grasp on the law.
#1 | Posted by LampLighter

Well normally yes but there's no reason to believe that to be true when Trump is making the appointments and this Senate is approving them.

#3 | Posted by johnny_hotsauce at 2026-04-22 01:13 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

The bug-eyed lush is crushing it on the Nancy Guthrie case.

#4 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2026-04-22 01:22 AM | Reply

@#3 ... there's no reason to believe that to be true when Trump is making the appointments ...

Wait ...

Pres Trump has said that he onlu appoints the best and the brightest to his Cabinet.

OpEd: Trump's best-and-brightest problem (2018)
www.chicagotribune.com

... Way back in 2015, shortly after Donald Trump announced his presidential run and the country began to learn what New Yorkers had always known about him, he reassured folks that he was a talent magnet.

"I'm going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people," he boasted to The Washington Post back then. "We want top-of-the line professionals."

And, here we are. Boris Epshteyn, Anthony Scaramucci, Sebastian Gorka, Carter Page, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, Corey Lewandowski, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer and others all have come and gone. ...

#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-04-22 01:36 AM | Reply

@#3, 5

OK, I think you may be on to something.

#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-04-22 01:38 AM | Reply