Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Tuesday that he has not read the latest bombshell report about FBI Director Kash Patel.

On Friday, The Atlantic reported that on April 10, Patel was locked out of an FBI computer system, which prompted the director to hurriedly call aides and allies to inform them that he had been fired, according to nine people familiar with the situation. However, the lockout was the result of a technical issue, and not Patel’s termination. The report also stated that the director has drunk excessively, sometimes in public.

“On multiple occasions in the past year, members of his security detail had difficulty waking Patel because he was seemingly intoxicated, according to information supplied to Justice Department and White House officials,” The Atlantic said. “A request for ‘breaching equipment’—normally used by SWAT and hostage-rescue teams to quickly gain entry into buildings—was made last year because Patel had been unreachable behind locked doors, according to multiple people familiar with the request.”

Patel flatly denies the reporting and is suing The Atlantic for $250 million. On Tuesday, he and Blanche held a joint press conference at the Department of Justice, where Patel got into a heated exchange with a reporter.

For his part, Blanche said he has not yet read The Atlantic report.

“Obviously, you read The Atlantic article that’s now a subject of a defamation lawsuit,” one reporter began.

“I absolutely did not read that article, but go ahead with the question,” Blanche interjected.

“Obviously, it’s in litigation now,” the reporter continued. “Have you separately just heard any concerns given your supervision over the FBI director about any problems with drinking?”

“I have a lot of concerns, and my concerns are completely around the anonymous reporting that comes forth constantly,” Blanche replied. “And when an entire article is based on anonymous sources, and there’s things in the article suggesting, for example, apparently, that senior DOJ personnel were informed of something, that’s me. I wasn’t informed. No one called me about that. So look, listen, I did not read that article. It is a subject of litigation, but you know, I’ve already spent too much time talking about it. Next question.”

Watch above via C-SPAN.

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