Trump FBI Director Gets INSTANT KARMA in LAWSUIT

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]belleaguered FBI director Cash Patel in your $250 million defamation case against the Atlantic to try to rehabilitate your reputation. Meet a hard place. That would be Judge EMTT Sullivan, who's been assigned to the case. He's a senior status judge in the District of Columbia federal court, a Clinton appointee, an independent maverick who does not suffer fools, especially at the Department of Justice, and I'm sure is going to be very um hard on Cash Patel's lawsuit and the allegations made in it as the Atlantic, I'm sure, is busy working on their motion to dismiss this case. I'm Michael Popach. Let's give you an update about what's happening in the Cash Patel case because it matters. Thank you to our audience. We found out today that Legal AF the podcast won two Webbby awards for best news and politics podcast including a people's choice award people's voice award and that the intersection my podcast won the people's voice award for best podcast in news uh new uh and we really appreciate your support for that.

[00:01:10]Let's get back to the lawsuit filed in the last 24 hours. Now, The Atlantic ran an article on the 17th of April, which they stand by. I'm sure it's been well sourced. I don't have insider knowledge, but I know The Atlantic would not run it unless it was run by and vetted to within an inch of its life by the First Amendment lawyers that work with and for the Atlantic in terms of grilling the reporter to make sure everything uh eyes dotted and tees crossed. their allegations their allegations but they're about as believable as anything that Cash Patel has been saying is that Cash Patel frequents places like cocktail lounges in Vegas and bars in Washington and New York and sometimes can't be found and has been derelictked in his duties as a result of that.

[00:01:55]compromised national security because he is vulnerable to being his his alcoholism as allegedly Atlantic is vulnerable to being exploited by our adversaries. Sounds legitimate. Sounds like a lot of the things that we've been saying. All you got to do is watch clips of Cash Patel battle it out in Congress and you have a you have questioned his own capabilities for sure. The Atlantic has come out with the following statement which is one sentence and I think says it all. We stand by our reporting on Cash Patel and we will vigorously defend the Atlantic and our journalists against this meritless lawsuit. Thank you Atlantic.

[00:02:37]Let's get back to the so the allegations in brief as you probably know. In fact, he had to list them all all the allegations that he doesn't like. So I'm just going to read from a few of them on paragraph 18 of the complaint that has been reproduced by Cash Patel that this is on paragraph 18 which we've posted on legal AF Substack for paid members that Patel is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication in many cases at the private club Neds in Washington DC and at the White House knows about it that he drinks to excess at the Poodle Room in Las Vegas. By the way, as you're going through this, these are all of the legitimate areas for discovery, for depositions. Let's have the staff from the poodle room. Let's have the staff from Neds. Let's see the credit card receipts. And are there videos? You see, that's why if you're if you're trying to figure out who's telling the truth here, there's a lot of corroborating evidence that The Atlantic may already have access to, but certainly will come out during a lawsuit. Have a seat, Cash Patel. Swear in for your deposition. You see where this is going? Okay. Um, they also talked about having to move, this is the allegations reproduced in the complaint, that meetings and briefings had to be moved to the afternoon because of his alcoholfueled nights. That um they had difficult difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated. That they they had a request for breaching equipment um to knock down the doors to find Patel who couldn't be woke out. that he had a freak out um in beginning of April about a week or so ago when he was locked out of his computer seven or eight times and he was convinced that he had been fired and had a meltdown and so on and so on. Now they instead their defense is have you seen Cash Patel during the Senate and House confirmation hearings? Look how great he is. He's totally on top of his job. Is that what we're watching? In fact, just to remind you what we're watching before I turn to the judge, here's a clip of Cash Patel. Play it.

[00:04:39]>> And let me make something crystal clear.

[00:04:40]I never said Jeffrey Epstein didn't traffic other people, other women, and they're not other victims. This is the investigation we were given from 2006,78 and the search warrants from 2006,7 and 8. That's what we're working with.

[00:04:52]>> Wait, have you released all of the stuff that the FBI has seized from Epstein's house? The computers, the emails, the file cabinets, the documents. What about the financial records? Have you released all of that?

[00:05:04]>> Everything the court has allowed us to release.

[00:05:06]>> Which court are you talking about?

[00:05:07]>> Three separate federal courts have come in and said, >> "We're talking about the evidence you've got. It's got nothing to do with what those courts have.

[00:05:14]>> Do you have any law works?

[00:05:17]>> Do you want me to break the law in a federal judge's order?"

[00:05:19]>> No, I want you to follow your own word.

[00:05:21]Director Patel, you said up there it was under the direct control of the FBI director. He had the black book I have direct control over. We have gone to court. You haven't complete your sentence. Everything you have direct control over, you said >> have gone to court and everything we have direct control.

[00:05:38]>> Complete your sentence. You said everything we release, we're releasing.

[00:05:42]>> Much more is come out in the days since the American people in Congress have been demanding it. But it's coming out in dribbs and drabs. Why don't you just release the entire file as you promised to do?

[00:05:51]>> I literally just told you there are multiple federal court orders. I'm not going to break the law to satisfy your curiosity. You didn't join us when we filed court to release the court orders.

[00:06:02]You could have. You have lawyers. You could have shown up. You didn't do that.

[00:06:06]>> Let's talk about the witness interviews.

[00:06:08]302s of witness interviews. Those are not subject to the court order. Those are not subject to any fictional sealed order for a search warrant. Why aren't you releasing those with the redacted names of the victims?

[00:06:22]>> We are releasing as much as legally allowed. That's why we went back.

[00:06:25]>> How is that? How is that not legally allowed?

[00:06:28]>> Sir, do you know how court orders work?

[00:06:29]Do you know how protective orders work?

[00:06:31]>> Actually, Mr. Patel, I was a prosecutor, a real prosecutor for 10 years. I know exactly how.

[00:06:35]>> So, I was a fake.

[00:06:37]>> You are hiding the Epstein files. Mr. >> is expired.

[00:06:40]>> You are part of the cover up.

[00:06:41]>> Now, the whole thing starts with a defense of his tenure in the last 15 months. So in paragraph nine of the complaint, it lists all the amazing things that he wants to take credit for at the FBI. Some of which is really not the credit is not credit is not to be given to the FBI. Let's talk about murder rates for a minute. Murder is not a federal offense unless there's a federal crime committed as a result. It is a state crime. If you have lower murder rates in your town, especially since COVID, it is probably because of your local state police, county sheriff, or you know, uh, local police department. Has nothing to do with the feds unless there's a federal crime.

[00:07:24]There's very small amounts of federal crime that are committed that also lead to murders. Even mass shootings like we had over the last weekend where 134 Americans died. That's not a federal offense. Okay? If state lines are crossed, sometimes the feds get involved. I get it. But that if there's like a murder spree, but if if for him to take credit, I might as well take credit for the lower uh murder rates in America, you know, well, the more time people are watching videos on Midas, the less time they're out doing something else. I mean, that's how ridiculous that argument is. He then talks about uh violent crime arrests being up. Again, many of these violent crime arrests are not being done by the FBI. They're being done by state and local officials. Then he talks about um uh disruption. I don't even know what this term is. The successful disruption of 670 individuals from conducting terrorist attacks. What what's a disruption of 2,000 gangs? What? That's not a term of art in law enforcement.

[00:08:26]You disrupt Did you arrest them? Did you indict them? Are they in jail? They're disrupted.

[00:08:31]Okay. Uh no idea what that means. Um I don't think anybody does. But again, by filing this lawsuit, all all Cash Patel has opened him up open himself up to is to sit in a chair with the Atlantic lawyers cross-examining him and maybe at a public trial about the allegations of his drinking. Is that what he really wants? We just saw how he performs under pressure. Here's another clip of of what you can expect Cash Patel to be like at his deposition. Play the clip. I don't think you're fit to the bureau. But here's the thing, Mr. Patel.

[00:09:05]I think you're not going to be around long. I think this might be your last oversight hearing because as much as you supplicate yourself to the will of Donald Trump and not the Constitution of the United States of America, Donald Trump has shown us in his first term and in this term, he is not loyal to people like you. He will cut you loose. This may be the last time I have a hearing with you because I don't think you're long for your job. But I'm going to tell you this. I pray for you. I pray for you that you can step up and defend your oath, defend the Constitution, and do a much better job of defending this country. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[00:09:44]>> Do you want to say anything?

[00:09:49]>> That rant of false information does not bring this country together. If you want to work on bringing this country, it's my time, not yours.

[00:09:59]>> My god. My god. If you want to talk about abiding this country, I follow you on your social media posts that tear this country apart.

[00:10:10]You can try all you want in this country to not say responsibility for what you have said, sir. You're the mockery of THIS COMMITTEE. SIR, YOU DON'T tell me my time is over. The people of New Jersey tell me what my time is. You can't lecture me.

[00:10:26]You may BE THE TARGET AND I am not afraid of you.

[00:10:30]>> Mr. Chairman, >> I'm not afraid of you.

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[00:12:13]EMTT Sullivan is probably Cash Patel's worst nightmare. Most of the judges in the uh DC federal courts, which is where they had to file this apparently because Cash Patel lives in DC. I mean, they could have gone to some other place.

[00:12:28]Yeah. I'm surprised they didn't file it in Florida, arguing that like, well, the Atlantic, you know, has a Florida connection, but the problem is Patel doesn't. So Patel apparently only has an apartment or a place to live in DC. You got to sue where you live generally um unless you've been injured somewhere else. So I thought he I think he was sort of stuck in DC and if he's stuck in DC most of the judges there are have been appointed by uh Democratic presidents. So he was bound to get somebody he didn't like. There's only a couple in there that would have gone his way. Now, at the appellet court, there's a couple of Trumpapp appointed judges that often got p get put on the panel.

[00:13:09]They make up about 15% of the appellet panel like Judge Rayo and Judge Katsis and Judge Walker. But we're at the district court level first. So, Sullivan involved with the Flynn when uh Lieutenant Colonel Flynn for lying to Congress was indicted. Trump comes in, decides they're going to uh try to dismiss the indictment. Department of Justice comes in and EMTT Sol and EMTT Sullivan grills them. How can you dismiss? Why? Why are you It looks like it's political. Why are you doing this?

[00:13:47]How are you doing this? Even Bill Barr tried to get it dismissed. Now, ultimately, the the dismissal doesn't happen. Flynn gets sentenced and convicted and now has been pardoned by Donald Trump. Roger Stone, another political operative of Donald Trump, one of the architects of Stop the Steel back in 2016. Roger Stone uh was sentenced by EMTT Sullivan. Now, he didn't throw the book at him. He gave him sort of a middle-of the road 40month sentence uh which was ultimately commuted by Donald Trump. So EMTT Sullivan is no one to um doesn't suffer fools and doesn't um I would you would you you're not going to want to pick a fight with now the lawyers for Patel. Let's talk about them for a minute which is uh Jesse Benal.

[00:14:40]They're based in Virginia. Got a couple of lawyers that work in Florida. They've represented Donald Trump before. He's not their current go-to firm or they're not their current go-to firm for Trump, but I'm sure Patel got there through a Trump connection and recommendation. If I had to guess, it would be um uh Stan Woodward, who's the number three in the Department of Justice and a MAGA lawyer himself, recommended it. or maybe Todd Blanch or somebody like that to uh to have this law firm in Virginia represent him. Now, here's what's going to happen. We've seen it time and time again.

[00:15:20]The Atlantic is going to file a relatively quick motion to dismiss. They may move for a quick, if they want to be really aggressive, they move for a quick deposition of Cash Patel. That's what I would do.

[00:15:35]I move for a deposition of Cash Patel, get him under oath quick, then move for summary judgement relatively early in the case, which would completely be dispositive of the case and end it. The other way to do it is to do a motion to dismiss, which would give Cash Patel effectively a couple of opportunities.

[00:15:56]The weak points of the complaint, which are many, but the main one that media relies on is that they haven't argued sufficiently, haven't alleged sufficiently what's called actual malice.

[00:16:10]See, a media company, including ours, you can't sue them for defamation unless you can prove as a public figure like Cash Patel is, that the media company ran the story knowing it was false. or with reckless disregard as to whether it was true or false. Right? Okay. So, you have to have facts to support that. You have to have them now. You know, so you can argue that it is you can argue in defense if you're the Atlantic that it's true, you know, truth is a defense to defamation, but normally you focus on there's no actual malice. Now, when you go to the actual malice section, it's not really a section about knowledge that the Atlantic knew or should have known that what they were running was not true. It's more of, well, a reasonable and credible reporter would have done the following. And I have a feeling based on The Atlantic's response that they did that. Um here they say on paragraph 41, a responsible reporter, a competent editor or a nonreckless factchecker would have taken notice of the following and then go through um for instance a the FBI's extensive, contemporaneous, and publicly documented operational output under director Patel uh is inconsistent with a director who's off and away or unreachable.

[00:17:39]or intoxicated. I don't even understand that he's not he's not actually doing the work. There are people in the FBI still. Uh so that's their best argument.

[00:17:49]Um look at look at what he's done as a as a department. He we can't do that if he's also a drunk. Um his congressional testimony and briefings uh depict a director who's engaged in substantively prepared and actively directing bureau operations. Is that what that looks like? So, if this is the best they've got, oh, and they also don't like the fact that people inside the FBI who cooperated with the Atlantic to say it's good that Patel runs around chasing after nonsense because it makes the country safer because he's not getting involved with things that matter. Oh, they have an axe to grind because they were eye rolling about Patel. Just because somebody makes a statement and also does an eye roll doesn't mean that they are not telling the truth or that the reporter shouldn't rely on them. The reporter had credible insider uh witnesses testifying to them, giving them this information and it's very easy to corroborate. You know, they say, "Well, they didn't call the poodle room, the poodle lounge. How do they know?"

[00:18:57]Okay, maybe they did. Maybe they called Neds. Maybe they got the the uh cash register receipts. Uh look, they're very confident in running this article. And I think EMTT Sullivan, the the judge here, is going to be um is going to make Cash Patel's lawyers have to do better than this complaint. I think this complaint gets dismissed just like the Wall Street Journal complaint got got dismissed that Donald Trump brought against Rupert Murdoch in the Wall Street Journal.

[00:19:30]He'll have probably one more shot under the federal rules under uh you know practice to do another attempt to get actual malice right and failing that this case is over or you go really aggressively and you put Cash Patel under oath and see if you can catch him.

[00:19:48]That's another way I've done that in cases. We'll see which one the Atlantic does. We'll follow it here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. Thank you again for your contributions to our Webbby award wins. until my next report.

[00:20:00]This is Michael.

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