FBI Director Kash Patel’s attempt to score a massive payday over a string of insulting social media posts just blew up in spectacular fashion.
A federal judge on Tuesday tossed Patel’s $10 million defamation lawsuit against California blogger and podcaster Jim Stewartson, wiping out a previous default judgment and handing the FBI director an embarrassing courtroom defeat nearly three years after the case began.
The lawsuit, originally filed in June 2023, accused Stewartson of defaming Patel in a series of posts that called him a “blatantly incompetent chud,” a “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch,” and accused him of helping plot the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Stewartson never initially responded to the lawsuit, allowing Patel to win a default judgment worth $250,000 in August 2025. But that victory didn’t last.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Gordon ruled Tuesday that the federal court in Nevada never had personal jurisdiction over Stewartson in the first place. Because Stewartson lives in California and his posts were not specifically directed at Nevada, Gordon concluded the case never should have been heard there. The ruling threw out the lawsuit and erased Patel’s earlier courtroom win.
Stewartson had argued that he had virtually no connection to Nevada and challenged the default judgment after learning about it.
Never one to back away from a fight, Stewartson celebrated the ruling online with more insults aimed at Patel. In one filing, he declared he was prepared to explain “in full detail” why he stood by calling the FBI director a “chud.” The phrase “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch” even found its way into a footnote of Judge Gordon’s order.
After the decision, Stewartson took to X to gloat.
“PSA: Now that my case is settled,” he wrote, “you are free to refer to @FBIDirectorKash as a ‘chud,’ a ‘googly-eyed Kremlin bitch,’ and a ‘traitor’ without fear of legal repercussions!”
The loss adds to Patel’s growing legal headaches. He is also pursuing a separate $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic over an April article that alleged he engaged in excessive drinking and displayed erratic behavior.
Earlier this week, the magazine asked a judge to throw that case out as well, calling Patel’s lawsuit a “meritless” attack on First Amendment protections.
For now, Patel’s biggest courtroom victory has disappeared, leaving him with nothing to show for a legal battle that ended exactly where it started: dismissed.
