A federal judge has thrown out a defamation lawsuit filed by Devin Nunes—former congressman and current CEO of Trump Media—against NBCUniversal over a comment made by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
The case centered on something Maddow said during a March 2021 episode of The Rachel Maddow Show. She told viewers that Nunes “refused to hand it over to the FBI, which is what you should do if you get something from somebody who is sanctioned by the U.S. as a Russian agent.” Maddow was referring to a package Nunes received in 2019 from Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian politician tied to Russian intelligence.
Nunes claimed this was a lie and that Maddow knew it—arguing that he did, in fact, turn the package over to federal authorities. But on Friday, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel dismissed the case, saying there was no proof Maddow acted with “actual malice,” a legal standard required for public figures to win defamation suits, noted Reuters.
Castel wrote in his 24-page ruling that Nunes didn’t show Maddow knew about a 2020 Politico article reporting the FBI had received the package. “There is no evidence that defendant’s admitted political bias caused defendant to act with a reckless disregard of the truth,” he said.
The U.S. Treasury had sanctioned Derkach in 2020 for trying to interfere in that year’s presidential election to help Donald Trump. In 2022, federal prosecutors charged him with money laundering and sanctions violations. He hasn’t been caught.
Neither Nunes, Trump Media, nor NBCUniversal lawyers have commented publicly since the ruling.
