Kash Patel loses $10 million defamation lawsuit against California blogger who called him ‘googly-eyed’ and ‘blatantly incompetent’

FBI Director Kash Patel has had his $10 million lawsuit against a California blogger who insulted him thrown out by a Nevada federal judge.

As reported by New Republic, Patel had brought the claim against Jim Stewartson in Nevada in 2023 for defamation, injurious falsehood, and business disparagement. The complaint said that Stewartson had called Patel a “blatantly incompetent chud”, a “googly-eyed Kremlin b—h”, that he had “planned 1/6”, that he is “guilty of sedition”, and that he and his foundation paid people to “lie to congress”.

Stewartson initially didn’t respond to the lawsuit, resulting in Patel winning a default judgment of $250,000 in August 2025. However, Stewartson challenged that on the basis that he was a California resident with no ties to Nevada.

Chief District Judge Andrew P Gordon agreed, ruling:

“Stewartson did not accuse Patel of conducting any of his activities in Nevada, nor did he purposefully target a Nevada audience when he posted about them, despite tagging Patel himself, who happened to be a Nevada resident. Simply, Nevada was not the “focal point” of Stewartson’s allegedly defamatory posts.”

He concluded that, “There is no arguable basis for this court to exercise specific personal jurisdiction over Stewartson. Thus the default judgment is void, and I set it aside under Rule 60(b)(4).”

“I’d like to commend the judge”

Stewartson didn’t get off scot-free, as the judge also ruled that “he has wasted the plaintiffs’ and the court’s time, and I do not commend his actions.”

That doesn’t appear to have dampened Stewartson’s mood, as he took to social media to celebrate his victory.

He also added that he believes this judgment gives Americans a license to insult Patel as they wish. It should be noted that Stewartson is not a lawyer

Neither Patel nor his representatives have commented on the judge’s ruling.

Meanwhile, we recently learned that Kash Patel’s girlfriend Alexis Wilkins has filed her own lawsuit against MS Now, accusing reporters Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig of falsely portraying her as being intoxicated.

Patel himself has also filed other defamation lawsuits against other journalists, including a recent $250 million complaint against The Atlantic after an article accused him of being so drunk he is a national security risk, that his security detail has difficulty waking him, that a breaching team had to be summoned in an incident where he was unreachable behind closed doors, and multiple sources alleging that important meetings and briefings had to be rescheduled due to Patel’s late nights partying. Those cases are pending.