One day before the New York Times published a negative piece about leadership reforms at the FBI under Director Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, the deputy director lashed out in a scathing online statement, accusing the liberal outlet of sensationalizing a recent sparring match he undertook with fellow agents.

Bongino, who served in the U.S. Secret Service for a decade before retiring and rebranding himself into a conservative media figure, issued a stern rebuke of the Times for including in its story a retelling of a face-off on the wrestling mat with another agent. The 50-year-old downplayed a minor injury suffered from a takedown.

“Adam Goldman of the NY Times is getting ready to run another one of their ‘journalism’ exposé pieces about me spending time in our FBI training facility ground fighting with our dedicated and skilled defensive tactics instructors,” he wrote online Sunday. “Their big news ‘hook’ is that after a solid few rounds of grappling, I injured my shoulder.”

According to several former agents, Bongino lost a bout against younger agents skilled in jujitsu, the Times wrote, which he acknowledged.

“The instructor I was grappling with got the best of me, because he’s incredibly talented,” his statement continued. “That’s why he’s there.”

“And it was not an ‘injury’ but a bit of swelling in my right elbow, not shoulder, because I’m 50 years old and I can’t recover like I used to. But I felt it was important to get on the mats any way, because that’s what men do.”

Whether or not the paper’s reporting was influenced by Bongino’s statement, the Sunday night online edition did not mention any injury Bongino suffered as a result of the sparring.

Instead, some coverage was devoted to criticism of the Bureau by Kyle Seraphin, a former agent who has supported Patel in the past but recently has poked fun at the director for “taking selfies with the Hostage Rescue Team” and also suggesting that FBI culture may have “captured” the director and his number two.

Other features in the Sunday edition story include rumors about Patel’s romantic life; he is reportedly “making time” for Alexis Wilkins, 26, a country music singer he has visited in Nashville on multiple occasions. He was upbraided for using the FBI’s private jet for his travel despite agency requirements for security reasons.

Some of those trips were embellished as jet-setting affairs intended to boost Patel’s personal brand while attending UFC fights and an NFL game where he sat next to Wayne Gretzky. Former directors like Louis Freeh have shunned the spotlight while others like Robert Mueller sought it out, said disgruntled former agents who panned Patel’s unprecedented approach.

Patel has not yet acknowledged the story as of Monday. His social media pages are on message, touting the arrest of criminal illegal immigrants and successful raids in partnership with agents from U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.

“Together with our law enforcement partners, we are actively working to identify, disrupt, and dismantle their networks. We will not allow foreign-backed criminal organizations to take root in our communities,” reads part of his most recent post.