FBI Director Kash Patel testifies earlier than a Senate Intelligence Committee listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 18, 2026.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
FBI Director Kash Patel on Thursday filed an enchantment of the current dismissal of his defamation lawsuit in opposition to former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi.
Patel had sued Figliuzzi in Houston federal court docket, alleging that the previous FBI counterintelligence assistant director defamed him in a Might 2, 2025, interview on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” by saying Patel had “been seen at nightclubs way over he has been on the seventh flooring of” FBI headquarters.
U.S. District Courtroom Choose George Hanks Jr., in his April 21 choice dismissing Patel’s lawsuit, stated that Figliuzzi’s assertion was “rhetorical hyperbole that can’t represent defamation.”
“Accordingly, Dir. Patel has didn’t state a declare in opposition to Figliuzzi, and his lawsuit should be dismissed,” Hanks wrote.
Patel’s bid to overturn that ruling might be heard by the fifth Circuit U.S. Courtroom of Appeals.
Hanks dismissed Patel’s swimsuit a day after the FBI director filed an unrelated $250 million defamation lawsuit in D.C. federal court docket in opposition to The Atlantic journal.
The swimsuit pertains to an Atlantic article that alleged Patel has abused alcohol.
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