Kash Patel Faces New Backlash as FBI Agents Reportedly Balk At Orders to Investigate Atlantic Reporter

Some FBI agents are allegedly resisting orders to identify individuals who leaked unflattering details about their bosses, according to a new report from Independent.

MS Now reported that agents within the bureau have been directed to launch a criminal investigation targeting both a leaker and the journalist behind a scathing Atlantic exposé on FBI Director Kash Patel. Two anonymous sources told the network that agents tasked with the probe have voiced serious reservations, viewing it as government retaliation rather than legitimate law enforcement.

“They know they are not supposed to do this,” one source told the outlet. “But if they don’t go forward, they could lose their jobs. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

The investigation appears to stem from Atlantic reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick‘s article, which cited roughly two dozen anonymous sources and detailed troubling allegations against Patel, 46, including claims of misusing bureau aircraft for personal travel — such as flying to see his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, 27, in concert — and allegations that excessive drinking left him unreachable by staff.

Patel denied the claims and filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick in response, Globe previously reported.

FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson flatly denied the existence of any such investigation, telling MS NOW, “This is completely false. No such investigation like this exists and the reporter you mention is not being investigated at all.”

The Atlantic‘s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, 60, pushed back forcefully. “If confirmed to be true, an FBI criminal leak investigation targeting our reporter would represent an outrageous attack on the free press and the First Amendment itself,” Goldberg wrote in a statement posted on X.

Goldberg’s statement continued, “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 controversy arises amid a broader pattern of tension between the bureau and the media. Per The New York Times, the FBI investigated one of its reporters, Elizabeth Williamson, to determine whether she had digitally stalked Patel’s girlfriend, Wilkins. Williamson had contacted the singer to ask about Patel’s alleged use of FBI agents to escort and transport Wilkins, and was never in physical proximity to her, per The Independent. The FBI told The New York Times that “while investigators were concerned about how the aggressive reporting techniques crossed lines of stalking,” there was no active investigation into Williamson.

In January, the bureau seized electronic devices from Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson during an unrelated probe, per the Independent article. Natanson, 28, who was not under investigation herself, went on to win a Pulitzer Prize on Monday, May 4, for her reporting on mass firings carried out by the Department of Government Efficiency.