May 6, 2026
Press, Patel, and Pâté panic
FBI investigating leaks to journalist who wrote explosive article on Kash Pate
Commenters say this looks less like justice and more like a warning shot at the press
TLDR: MS NOW reports the FBI is investigating leaks tied to a reporter behind a harsh story about Kash Patel, though the bureau says no such probe exists. Commenters are split between calling it a chilling threat to press freedom and warning people not to treat the report as proven fact.
The big headline is already explosive: MS NOW says the FBI has opened a criminal leak probe tied to a reporter who wrote a brutal story about Director Kash Patel’s alleged drinking and behavior on the job. The FBI flatly denies it, The Atlantic says if it’s true it would be a shocking attack on press freedom, and the internet has done what it does best: turned the whole thing into a mix of constitutional panic, side-eye, and top-tier snark.
The strongest reaction in the comments is pure alarm. Several readers aren’t even treating this as a narrow media dispute — they see it as a big, ugly message: stay quiet, don’t embarrass powerful people, or prepare for pain. One commenter called it a “slowly boiling frog” moment for freedom of the press, while another argued the point isn’t truth at all, but a raw “display of power.” That mood absolutely dominated the thread.
But not everyone was ready to grab the pitchforks. One skeptical voice pumped the brakes, noting that the FBI is denying any investigation exists at all, and warning people not to confuse the article’s framing with an official admission. That gave the thread its main fight: authoritarian crackdown or media-fueled leap?
And because the internet cannot resist a typo, the funniest moment came from a commenter joking that the headline had dropped the final “l” in Patel — asking whether this was actually about Kash pâté. Dark political dread, legal drama, and a garnish of deli humor: the comments had everything.
Key Points
- •MS NOW reported, citing two anonymous sources, that the FBI opened a criminal leak investigation related to an Atlantic journalist’s reporting on Kash Patel.
- •The report says the inquiry is unusual because it allegedly does not concern classified information and is focused on leaks to a reporter.
- •Sarah Fitzpatrick’s original article cited two dozen anonymous sources and alleged concerns inside the FBI about Patel’s alcohol use and behavior.
- •Kash Patel sued The Atlantic for defamation, while the magazine and Fitzpatrick said they stand by the reporting and have additional corroboration.
- •The FBI officially denied that any such investigation exists, and the article placed the report in the context of Justice Department rules that generally limit efforts to obtain journalists’ records.