A legal gambit by Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes has fizzled out in federal court. His defamation lawsuit against NBCUniversal, targeting remarks made by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, was thrown out by a Manhattan judge who found no malice—just commentary.
At the heart of the case: a segment from *The Rachel Maddow Show* aired in March 2021. Maddow claimed that Nunes, then a congressman and ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, had received a package from sanctioned Ukrainian legislator Andrii Derkach—an alleged Russian agent—and failed to hand it over to the FBI. Maddow told her viewers that Nunes “refused to hand it over,” suggesting it was a breach of protocol.
Nunes cried foul. He insisted the package *was* handed over, and that Maddow either knew this or ignored it out of political bias. He sued.
But U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel didn’t see defamation—he saw protected speech. In a 24-page decision, Castel ruled that no reasonable jury could find Maddow acted with “actual malice,” the high bar required when public figures sue for defamation. The judge emphasized that Maddow and her team relied on other sources and there was no evidence she deliberately lied or recklessly disregarded the truth.
Castel also noted that there was no indication Maddow was even aware of a Politico article—published months after her segment—that stated the FBI had received the package. Without a “high degree of awareness of probable falsity,” the judge concluded, the case could not proceed.
The fallout? Silence so far. Neither Nunes nor Trump Media offered a comment. NBCUniversal also stayed quiet.
Derkach, the Ukrainian figure who sparked the controversy, was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2020 for election interference aimed at aiding Donald Trump. He was later charged with money laundering and sanctions violations—but has yet to be apprehended.
Nunes v. NBCUniversal Media Inc. has now been stamped *dismissed*, another chapter closed in the ex-congressman’s string of defamation suits—many of which have met a similar end.
