Las Vegas resident and a close confidant of President Donald Trump, Kashyap “Kash” Patel, has initiated legal proceedings against podcaster Jim Stewartson for purportedly defaming him. Patel has filed a defamation lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. As per the lawsuit, defendant Stewartson titled himself an “anti-disinformation activist” who habitually defamed Kashyap Patel and his non-profit Foundation, Kash Foundation.

Patel founded the non-profit Foundation with a mission to support educational and legal efforts needed to facilitate government transparency with the goal of creating a healthier relationship between the U.S. federal government and American citizens. 

Patel served as the Chief of Staff to the Acting United States Secretary of Defense, Christopher Miller. Patel has worked at the United States National Security Council and United States House of Representatives in Washington D.C. under the then President Donald Trump’s administration. Patel was also selected to serve as Principal Deputy to the Acting Director of National Intelligence. At ODNI, he oversaw all 17 Intelligence Community (“I.C.”) agencies and prioritized intelligence collection to focus on challenging targets and global threats.

Before joining the Trump administration, Patel was a federal public defender, a federal prosecutor working on national security cases, and a legal liaison to the United States Armed Forces. A trusted aide to President Trump has testified before House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.  

It is alleged that Stewartson, a media and technology professional, sought fame through the modern trend of defaming prominent conservative figures, including Kashyap “Kash” Patel.

As per the complaint, Stewartson is accused of spreading pernicious lies about Mr. Patel, including accusing Patel of committing sedition, helping to plan illegal riots on January 6, working to overthrow the government, paying people to lie to Congress, and being a “Kremlin Asset” and an agent of Russia. Further, Stewartson is accused of a malicious attempt to smear Mr. Patel and his Foundation—based on personal and political animosity—and raise his public profile and make money for himself.

With a moderate left bias, Washington Post once wrote, “In the Trump administration’s four-year battle with the intelligence community, a recurring character was a brash lawyer named Kashyap P. “Kash” Patel. He appeared so frequently, in so many incarnations, that he was almost a “Zelig” figure in President Donald Trump’s confrontation against what he imagined as the “deep state.”

Patel is requesting a jury trial. The lawsuit seeks an award of compensatory, special, and punitive damages of ten million dollars ($10,000,000) as well as disgorgement of any and all income Stewartson has made off of his lies about Mr. Patel and the Kash Foundation. Additionally, Patel is asking for an injunctive relief prohibiting the publication or republication of the defamatory statements.

Kashyap has hired the current Nevada Republican Party’s national committeewoman and a failed GOP candidate for the Nevada State Attorney General position, Segal Chattah, to represent him in the lawsuit.