A federal judge in Nevada dismissed FBI Director Kash Patel’s defamation lawsuit against blogger Jim Stewartson on July 25, wiping out a $250,000 default judgment Patel had won against him less than a year earlier.
Patel and his nonprofit, the Kash Foundation, sued Stewartson in June 2023 over posts on X and Substack calling Patel a “Kremlin asset” who helped plan the January 6 Capitol riot. Stewartson never responded to the suit, and Chief Judge Andrew Gordon entered a default judgment against him in August 2025, awarding Patel $200,000 and the foundation $50,000.
Related: Kash Patel to Visit Moscow and St. Petersburg in October, Politico Reports
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Stewartson later moved to undo that judgment, arguing Patel’s team had never properly served him and that he had no meaningful ties to Nevada, where he doesn’t live. Gordon ordered both sides to brief the jurisdiction question in April, then ruled this week that the court never had personal jurisdiction over Stewartson, a California resident, vacating the judgment and dismissing the case outright.
Stewartson marked the win with a jab on X, saying he wanted to “commend the judge for including ‘googly-eyed Kremlin b—-‘ in his ruling,” pointing to a footnote where Gordon quoted one of Stewartson’s own posts about Patel. He thanked supporters and signaled the fight over his other legal battles isn’t finished.
Since taking over the bureau, Patel has brought at least six defamation suits against reporters and critics without winning a single one outright. In April, a federal judge in Texas dismissed the suit against former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi, finding the comments at issue were protected hyperbole rather than defamation.
Patel is also suing The Atlantic for $250 million over a story on his alleged heavy drinking, a case that remains pending.
