General Discussion

A national security lawyer with a reputation for defending political whistleblowers appeared unfazed by legal threats flung by President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the FBI.

In a legal letter on Friday, Mark Zaid sneered at demands Kash Patel made for Olivia Troye, a former counterterrorism aide to Mike Pence, to “publicly retract defamatory statements” of the MAGA loyalist. Zaid answered Patel’s lawyer Jesse Binnall, a veteran Trump attorney, by first noting that Troye’s statements have been previously stated “by a wide swath of the knowledgeable population.”

He then offered Patel’s attorney a visual image in his letter to reiterate his stance.

“But to answer your specific question as to Ms. Troye’s intensions as to a retraction, I think Monty Python expresses it best,” Zaid wrote above a photo of a mustached character from the Monty Python film known as the “French Taunter.”

“My counsel @markzaidesq.bsky.social’s response to #KashPatel & his threat to sue me for being critical of him on media & stating he is unfit to serve as FBI Director,” Troye wrote on social media. “Monty Python enters the chat.”

And Zaid wasn’t done. He also launched a social media blitz where he dug into his unwavering defense of his client and referred to Patel as “thin-skinned.”