Politico Fires Back at Lawsuit From Trump Official: ‘High on Bombast and Low on Merit’

A White House official filed a libel lawsuit against Politico, claiming the outlet accused him of “lying, deceit and unethical conduct” and fueling President Donald Trump’s belief in Ukraine theories.

Fox News reported that Kash Patel, a senior counterterrorism director on the White House National Security Council, is suing Politico and reporter Natasha Bertrand for the stories they published about him. Fox’s Howard Kurtz notes that Patel is a former staffer for Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA), and that it also serves as a rebuke of House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) for his handling of the Trump impeachment inquiry.

In a statement to Mediaite, Politico spokesman Brad Dayspring fired back at the suit: “This lawsuit is high on bombast and low on merit. It is unserious and is a public relations tactic designed to intimidate journalists and media organizations from doing their job.”

Patel’s suit against Bertrand connects to two articles she wrote, the first of which states that he was “among those passing negative information about Ukraine to President Donald Trump earlier this year, fueling the president’s belief that Ukraine was brimming with corruption and interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Democrats.” The second article Patel objects to reported he “misrepresented himself” in order to claim that he, not Alexander Vindman, was the NSC’s top Ukraine expert.

Bertrand based her stories on sources who informed her of the closed-door depositions Vindman and Fiona Hill, the former senior director for European and Russian Affairs, provided to Congress. Patel’s lawsuit, with much Trumpian language, disputes the reports and argues that Schiff is working with “his co-conspirators and media sympathizers” to advance the “baseless Ukrainian quid pro quo hoax.”

Watch Kurtz cover the lawsuit on Fox News above.