Judge tosses Kash Patel's defamation suit against former MSNBC contributor

Justice DepartmentJudge tosses Kash Patel's defamation suit against former MSNBC contributorThe judge said that Frank Figliuzzi’s statement, "when taken in context, cannot have been perceived by a person of ordinary intelligence as stating actual facts about Patel."Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00FBI Director Kash Patel speaks Tuesday at the Justice Department.Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 22, 2026, 1:36 PM EDTBy Tom WinterA federal judge in Texas has tossed a defamation suit brought by FBI Director Kash Patel against former FBI assistant director-turned-MSNBC contributor Frank Figliuzzi.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.Patel had sued Figliuzzi over comments he made on "Morning Joe" about the FBI director’s evening activities."Yeah, well, reportedly, he’s been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building," Figliuzzi said on the show last year. ("Morning Joe" now airs on MS NOW.)Figliuzzi's lawyers argued that "this comment was a sarcastic, hyperbolic remark that receives protection from defamation liability."Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, in 2021. Cheney Orr / Bloomberg via Getty Images fileU.S. District Judge George Hanks Jr. agreed, writing, “Figliuzzi’s statement, when taken in context, cannot have been perceived by a person of ordinary intelligence as stating actual facts about Patel.”"A person of reasonable intelligence and learning would not have taken his statement literally: that Dir. Patel has actually spent more hours physically in a nightclub than he has spent physically in his office building," the judge added.The judge said that since he believes the statement constitutes "rhetorical hyperbole," it cannot be defamation.Marc Fuller, Figliuzzi's lawyer, hailed the decision as a "victory for press freedom and the First Amendme...