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Sarah Fitzpatrick, the reporter behind the bombshell exposé about Kash Patel’s alleged conduct, said she stands by her story after he threatened to sue

White House officials are “openly discussing” who will be the next FBI director amid a bombshell report about current leader Kash Patel’s alleged excessive drinking and other concerning conduct.

Patel has threatened to sue The Atlantic after journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick’s report alleged the FBI director is deeply paranoid about being fired and often drinks to excess, alarming officials at the agency and beyond. Fitzpatrick responded that she stands “by every word of this reporting” and told MS NOW: “We have excellent attorneys.”

The FBI director has called the allegations ‘false reporting’ and said he would sue the Atlantic reporter who published them

FBI Director Kash Patel has threatened to sue over bombshell claims reported in a magazine profile that the Trump administration official is deeply paranoid about being fired and often drinks to excess, alarming officials at the law enforcement agency and beyond.

On April 10, according to the magazine, the director flew into a paranoid “freak-out” when faced with a technical issue with a computer system. The report claims Patel thought it was a sign he was being fired and he began calling aides and allies in a panic.

The most explosive allegations in the article are regarding Patel’s alleged excessive drinking.

The official is known to drink to the point of obvious intoxication at clubs in Washington and his home city of Las Vegas, according to the piece, violating FBI conduct standards and potentially leaving the nation’s top law enforcement official vulnerable to coercion or exploitation.

Early in his time leading the bureau, meetings had to be rescheduled to later in the day to accommodate his nighttime drinking, the report claims.

The US Navy has denied reports of food shortages on board two major vessels participating in the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Yesterday USA Today reported crew aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli were not getting enough to eat.

One photo taken by a Marine showed a mostly empty lunch tray with a single scoop of shredded meat and one tortilla.

A small group of Trump allies have targeted a hallowed dogsledding event in Greenland. They’re dangling the possibility of big investments. And they're shining a light on Greenland’s painful colonial past. The effort appears to be backfiring, though, by incensing leaders on the island.

At least two merchant vessels reported they were hit by gunfire as they attempted to cross the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, three maritime security and shipping sources said, shortly after Iran said it was once more ‌tightening control of the waterway.

Some merchant vessels received a radio message from Iran's Navy that the vital energy chokepoint was shut again and no ships were allowed to pass through, shipping sources said.

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a Trump administration lawsuit demanding detailed voter data from Rhode Island, a decision that follows similar rulings in a handful of other states.

U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy sided with Rhode Island’s top election officials and civil rights advocates, writing that federal law does not permit the U.S. Department of Justice “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here.”

McElroy’s decision is similar to other rejections by federal judges across country since the Justice Department began seeking detailed voter data from the states. The information includes dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, the subject of intensifying speculation about a potential retirement before the midterm elections, is not expected to leave the bench this year, sources close to the justice have told ABC News.

Alito, 76, has been hiring clerks for next term and intends to continue serving into at least 2027, the sources who have spoken to Alito told ABC.

The court's most senior member -- 77-year-old conservative Justice Clarence Thomas -- is also expected to remain on the bench.

Iran has learned that the Strait of Hormuz is its strongest deterrent

Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz just hours after the first tankers managed to pass through.

The country’s joint military command said on Saturday that it’s “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state … under strict management and control of the armed forces.”

A military spokesperson accused the US of not meeting its obligations after Donald Trump refused to lift America's own blockade of Iranian ports.

The number of immigrants who have died while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody has reached an all-time high this fiscal year.

Twenty-nine people have died in ICE custody since October, the start of the federal government's fiscal year, already surpassing 2004's toll of 28, the previous record, according to government data.

The most recent death was of 27-year-old Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt, a Cuban man held in ICE custody in Miami, Florida. According to an initial report released by ICE on the evening of April 16, Carbonell-Betancourt was found unresponsive in his cell on the morning of April 12. The report lists the cause of death as a "presumed suicide," but the official cause remains under investigation.

Trump administration has riled head of Catholic church over use of theology to justify conflict in Iran

The contrast in experience between the two men disagreeing over war and theology was striking.

On the one side was Pope Leo XIV, the first North American to head the Catholic church and the first cleric from the Augustinian order, who this week visited the modern Algerian city where Saint Augustine once lived. For Leo, who wrote his doctoral thesis on Augustine’s ideas, it was the culmination of a lifelong intellectual interest.

On the other, the US vice-president, JD Vance, a very recent adult convert to Catholicism with no academic background in the history of the church’s thinking.