President Donald Trump has long made repeated debunked claims that the 2020 election he lost was “rigged.” Patel says FBI has ‘information’ corroborating Trump
Kash Patel files defamation lawsuit against Atlantic
FBI Director Kash Patel has filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic, citing false and damaging claims.
WASHINGTON – Embattled FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau is gathering “information” that supports President Donald Trump’s long-debunked claim that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him, and arrests are expected soon.
“I want you to stay tuned this week. We might find one or two things,” Patel said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo” on April 19.
President Trump has for years repeated claims that American elections are rigged and that the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden was essentially stolen from him due to voter fraud and other electoral problems.
These claims were investigated and rejected by courts and election authorities. Trump lost 61 of 62 cases in court before his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, to disrupt the election counting process.
Investigation into President Trump’s claims of voter fraud: ‘Did he do anything?’
Bartiromo, a longtime friend of the president, asked Patel what the FBI was doing to investigate the election he lost to Biden. “Because every time I meet President Trump, he repeatedly says there was fraud in the 2020 election.”
“I mean, he says that all the time,” Bartiromo said. “You’ve been with the FBI for 14 months. Have you done anything about it? Is there anything you’d like to tell us about it?”
“That’s right, Maria,” Patel said, explaining that she “has been with the president almost from day one” on Democrats’ claims that voter fraud amounted to organized election theft.
“They tried to interfere with our elections and rig the entire system,” Patel told Bartiromo. “And…that’s not acceptable on my watch.”
“You keep hitting the target.”
Patel commented on the impending arrest in a wide-ranging interview. It also highlighted a bombshell report in The Atlantic alleging that excessive drinking and erratic behavior were undermining his ability to lead America’s top federal law enforcement agency.
Mr. Patel told Mr. Bartiromo that he intended to sue The Atlantic for defamation over falsehoods in the article, and filed suit on April 20, filing a $250 million lawsuit against the magazine and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick. The Atlantic said it stands by its reporting.
The FBI director linked the two issues, suggesting that the Atlantic Report and other years of negative media coverage were a hit in response to his investigation into alleged anti-Trump conduct by Biden and Obama administration officials.
Patel also played a role in investigating such actions by Democrats, first as a Congressional staffer and then as a national security official in the first Trump administration, including the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“It shows that even if you cross the mark, you continue to attack the target because the media is going to attack you,” Patel told Bartiromo. “We’re not going to accept this and we’re not going to back out of this.”
“We’re going to be arrested…soon.”
Bartiromo has been a vocal supporter of President Trump’s claims of election fraud, even after investigations and trials revealed fraud. On Sunday’s talk show, she continued to press Patel for details, saying, “Viewers want to know why there is no accountability.”
“I can announce on the show that we have all the information we need. We are working with prosecutors at the Department of Justice under Attorney General Todd Blanche,” Patel said. “And we’re going to make an arrest. And it’s going to be soon. And I promise you, it’s going to be soon.”
Patel said the Trump administration is “weaving the investigation into allegations of election fraud in 2020 into our overall conspiracy case,” and we will let prosecutors speak for them. However, we have information that supports President Trump’s claims. “But because this is an ongoing prosecution and investigation, we cannot get ahead of the Department of Justice and the president.”
Patel appears to be referring to the massive Justice Department investigation based in Miami and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
USA TODAY reported on November 7, 2025 that the Justice Department in the case is preparing a grand jury subpoena seeking documents from Obama administration officials that President Trump believes tried to improperly implicate him in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The Florida investigation, which focused heavily on former Obama CIA Director John Brennan, has reportedly been expanded to possibly investigate President Trump’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
On Monday, former Justice Department official Joseph diGenova, an ardent Republican who represented the Trump campaign during its challenge to the 2020 election results, was hired as attorney general’s adviser, his wife and fellow attorney Victoria Tensing confirmed to X.
DiGenova will oversee the investigation from the Southern District of Florida, and will join the team days after Justice Department official Maria Medetis Long was removed from the case, CBS News reported. A person familiar with the matter told CBS News that Medetis Long was removed from the case after she expressed concerns about the strength of the evidence.
A Justice Department spokesperson told CBS News that it is “healthy and normal” to make personnel changes in such cases, but did not provide further details.
In a brief interview with USA TODAY, diGenova said he could not comment on the incident or his role in it.
“I have never spoken to anyone in the press and today is not the first day I have spoken to them,” diGenova said. “I have nothing to say.”
