The FBI has launched a criminal investigation into leaks to an award-winning Atlantic journalist who wrote an explosive story last month on agency director Kash Patel’s alleged drinking habits and unprofessional behavior, sources told MS NOW on Wednesday.
The alleged investigation focuses on Sarah Fitzpatrick’s story saying people inside the Trump administration and the FBI have expressed deep concern over what more than two dozen sources described to the journalist as excessive drinking and partying by Patel that would sometimes lead to absences and erratic behavior.
A potential investigation could mean FBI agents get access to the journalist’s phone records, her social media contacts and personal information through the bureau’s databases — a huge escalation for a government agency against a member of the press.
The story did not involve any known classified information, making what two agents described to MS NOW as an insider-threat investigation incredibly aberrant. Leak investigations tend to focus on government officials disclosing state secrets that could harm national security rather than journalists.
“They know they are not supposed to do this,” one of the agents, who works within the insider-threats unit, told the outlet of agents reportedly investigating the matter. “But if they don’t go forward, they could lose their jobs. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
