The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, speaks during the press conference of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, about the deployment of federal agents of the law in Washington to reinforce the presence of the local police, in the reporting room of the press in the White House, in Washington DC, USA UU., On August 11, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters
The director of the FBI, Kash Patel and its foundation, won a default trial in their demand for defamation against a blogger that publicly accused Patel of being an “active of the Kremlin”, of trying to overthrow the government of the United States and plan the attack of January 6, 2021, in the Capitol of the United States by the supporters of President Donald Trump.
Patel and the Kash Foundation received a total of $ 250,000 in compensatory and punitive damage against the blogger and Podcast Jim Stewartson in an order on August 5 by Judge Andrew Gordon in the United States District Court in Las Vegas.
The order was first reported by the online news site Watch.
Gordon issued the predetermined sentence of Trump Patel’s old loyal after Stewartson did not respond in judicial documents to the demand, which cited a series of publications on social networks and other comments by Stewartson.
Patel had sought $ 10 million in damages for defamation claims, harmful falsehood and commercial contempt.
The judge said that punitive damages were justified in the case “partly to deter Stewartson and others to participate in defamation.”
“Objective criticism and opinions about public figures are protected discourse and should be tolerated,” Gordon wrote. “But the defamatory falsehoods made with real malice are not protected, even if they go to public officials.
“The complaint and the motion properly demonstrate that Stewartson acted with malice.”
Stewartson told CNBC in a text message on Friday: “They never fulfilled this lawsuit. I just learned about Trolls’ trial on Twitter last week.”
He said that Patel’s demand, and another defamation complaint pending against him by former Trump National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, in the State Court of Florida, intends to intimidate myself because I have been reporting precisely and diligently about the participation of Patel and Flynn in the Qanon movement and its participation on January 6, five years. “
“It is an absurd and frivolous demand and none of them will receive a penny,” Stewartson said. “In fact, I intend to seek my own case against them for their campaign of abuse of me and the legal system.”
The FBI said Patel would not have comments on the decision. CNBC has requested comments from its lawyers.
Patel lawyers said in a presentation of the court in March that after submitting the lawsuit in June 2023, Stewartson for months “dodged” the service of the complaint of the complaint, which, as a rule, is required to proceed with a civil case.
The lawyers said they finally completed the demand service at the end of October 2023, when a person at Stewartson’s house in California accepted a copy of the complaint.
Gordon wrote in his order that “he found a good cause to grant” a request for breach of Patel lawyers.
But Gordon also said that Patel’s lawyers “offers scarce evidence of damages to the plaintiff.”
The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, testifies during the Senate Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on “World Threats” in the Hart Senate Office building on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.
Bill Clark | Call Call Call, Inc. | Getty images
He pointed out that a report from an expert “establishes that the image of Mr. Patel has been deeply injured by the defamation that accuses him of working against the government, corruption and crime. In addition to the business already lost, this affects future opportunities and relations.”
“But the report does not offer examples of ‘already lost businesses’ and how the image of Mr. Patel was harmed by the defamatory statements themselves, as opposed to the myriad of uninfined attacks that Mr. Patel has suffered as a result of being a public figure,” Gordon wrote.
“On the contrary, after the defamatory statements, the United States Senate confirmed Mr. Patel as director of the FBI,” the judge wrote.
“Clearly, his reputation was not significantly stained by the defamatory statements.”
Gordon said that “there was almost no concrete evidence of damages or damages suffered by the” Patel Foundation. “
“All defamatory statements were addressed to Mr. Patel individually,” said the judge.
But Gordon said compensatory and punitive damages were justified in the case.
“Stewartson’s statements were defamatory and caused alleged damage,” the judge wrote.
“Falsely declaring as a fact that a public figure ‘tried to overthrow the government,’ he planned the insurrection of January 6, was an ‘Kremlin asset’ and paid people to lie to lies. [C]Onss’ … inflicts real injuries, personally and professionally, “the judge wrote.
The judge granted Patel $ 100,000 in compensatory damages and the same amount in punitive damage.
He granted the $ 25,000 Foundation in compensatory damages, and the same amount in punitive damage after accepting as a reasonable estimate of an claim that at least seven donors had stopped giving the group.
