The Atlantic Publishes 'The FBI Director Is MIA' Citing 24+ Sources on Patel Drinking and Absences

The Atlantic published a story by Sarah Fitzpatrick titled “The FBI Director Is MIA,” citing more than two dozen sources — current and former FBI officials, staff at law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, hospitality-industry workers, members of Congress, political operatives, lobbyists, and former advisers — describing FBI Director Kash Patel’s pattern of excessive drinking and unexplained absences. According to the reporting, Patel’s own security detail had on multiple occasions been unable to wake him, and meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled to later in the day. The Atlantic was originally titled “Kash Patel’s Erratic Behavior Could Cost Him His Job” and later retitled.

The reporting is significant because it surfaces operational concerns about the FBI Director’s fitness from inside the Bureau itself — extending the pattern documented in the Driscoll/Jensen/Evans lawsuit (September 2025) and the FBI Agents Association’s November 2025 statement calling Patel’s firings “erratic and arbitrary retribution.” Approximately 90% of active FBI agents through their union have now publicly opposed the Director, and FBI staff are independently leaking concerns about his fitness to The Atlantic. The story precedes Patel’s $250M defamation lawsuit (April 20), the DOJ’s SPLC indictment (April 21), the Intercept’s surfacing of Patel’s 2005 alcohol-arrest disclosure (April 24), and Politico’s report on imminent removal (April 25). See also 2025-11-04–fbi-agents-association-condemns-patel-lawless-retribution.