The publisher of The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick were granted until July 27 to respond to the lawsuit filed by FBI Director Kash Patel, after a filing revealed that the defendants’ lawyers had reached an agreement with Patel and his attorneys to accept service of the lawsuit on their clients’ behalf.
By the new July deadline, The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick will have had more than three months to respond to the defamation lawsuit, which was filed on April 20, shortly after the outlet published an article claiming Patel has a serious drinking problem that impacts his job performance and leaves him unavailable to staff for extended periods of time.
Patel forcefully denied the allegations, claiming The Atlantic failed to respond to a lengthy letter his attorneys sent to the outlet prior to its publication of the article, and gave him only a short window to respond.
While U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan formalized his ruling in a minute order last Friday, the order was granted at the request of a motion submitted last Wednesday by the attorneys for The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick.
According to the court filing, Patel’s attorneys asked those representing The Atlantic and Fitzpatrick to accept service of the lawsuit on behalf of their clients on May 22. In response, “Defendants agreed to accept service of the Complaint effective May 27, 2026, provided that Defendants received a 60-day extension of time to file responsive pleadings, to July 27, 2026.”
It also revealed that Fitzpatrick and The Atlantic are represented by Davis Wright Tremaine (DWT), a national law firm with offices throughout the country. It has been repeatedly recognized for its media and First Amendment practice.
The top lawyer at the firm representing the defendants appears to be Laura Handman, who has represented media figures and outlets in claims including defamation for more than 30 years.
According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Handman’s “clients include The New York Post, The New York Daily News, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, The Mail Online, Hearst, Harper Collins, Random House, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Amazon, NBCU, Discovery, Atlantic Media, The Economist, Microsoft, Trip Advisor, and Yelp.” It also notes she previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York.
The judge assigned to the case, Sullivan, 78, was appointed by former President Bill Clinton in 1994. He remains controversial among conservatives for his handling of the federal case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, as he refused to allow prosecutors to drop the case, and instead compelled sentencing to occur in defiance of the government’s wishes.
It was also Sullivan who ruled in 2022 that the Title 42 immigration rule used by the Trump administration to deport or turn away millions of illegal aliens during the COVID-19 epidemic was “arbitrary and capricious.”
– – –
Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
