{"id":2465566,"date":"2025-07-23T08:35:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/troll-chuck-johnson-found-liable-for-racketeering-defamation\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T08:39:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T12:39:13","slug":"troll-chuck-johnson-found-liable-for-racketeering-defamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/troll-chuck-johnson-found-liable-for-racketeering-defamation\/","title":{"rendered":"Troll Chuck Johnson Found Liable For Racketeering, Defamation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftroll-chuck-johnson-found-liable-for-racketeering-defamation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2465566&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>On July 14, a Texas jury held Chuck Johnson liable for $71 million in damages in a civil RICO and defamation lawsuit brought by conservative businessman Hal Lambert. Teh case exposed Johnson&#8217;s fraudulent claims of working as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/taliban-says-isis-does-not-exist-in-afghanistan-then-blames-it-for-kabul-bombing\/\" title=\"Taliban Says ISIS &#039;Does Not Exist&#039; in Afghanistan then Blames It for Kabul Bombing\">government intelligence agent<\/a> and his use of these false ties to extort businesses, including threats to cut off government contracts. Once known as a far-right troll,Johnson has as shifted to opposing Trump and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >working wiht extremist figures<\/a>,while maintaining antisemitic views. His attempts to evade court orders and discovery, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-files-powerhouse-motion-to-hold-jack-smith-in-contempt-of-court\/\" title=\"Trump seeks to hold Jack Smith in contempt of ... with a &#039;PowerHouse&#039; motion\">including false claims<\/a> about government agents and personal health issues, led to a default judgment after repeated defiance.Johnson has also been involved in another lawsuit in New York and was previously an FBI informant whose handler was later arrested for unauthorized disclosures. the $71 million judgment marks only the beginning of Johnson&#8217;s legal troubles, with further serious consequences expected. Tony Ortiz, publisher of Current Revolt, attended the trial and hearings.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>On July 14, a Texas jury found Chuck Johnson liable for $71 million in damages to conservative businessman Hal Lambert in a civil RICO and defamation case. The Independent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/americas\/us-politics\/charles-johnson-rico-liable-lawsuit-b2789559.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">described<\/a> the case as a victory against a &ldquo;notorious far-right troll.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>While that label was accurate a decade ago, Johnson is now an anti-Trump Democrat. After being fired or leaving on bad terms with the Daily Caller and Breitbart, he started his own publication, GotNews, and worked with open <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2017\/06\/24\/wesearchr-charles-johnson-alt-right-causes.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">neo-Nazis<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/florida-politics\/buzz\/2018\/02\/05\/matt-gaetzs-state-of-the-union-guest-admits-he-questioned-holocaust\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">denied the Holocaust<\/a>. GotNews shut down after being <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/cases\/federal\/district-courts\/michigan\/miedce\/2:2018cv10542\/327275\/95\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sued<\/a> for libel in 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Embittered, he spent the last five years smearing conservatives who made the mistake of associating with him. For example, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2024\/08\/07\/jd-vance-charles-johnson-texts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leaked<\/a> his text messages with JD Vance to the Washington Post to harm Vance by association.<\/p>\n<p>However, his antisemitism remained constant. He endorsed Harris for president in part because he <a href=\"https:\/\/otter.ai\/s\/fSA8oecoQRKh6WYT4E0K1w?snpt=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">thought<\/a> Tim Walz was &ldquo;breaking down the &hellip; myth of the Holocaust,&rdquo; and he remains <a href=\"https:\/\/charlesjohnson.substack.com\/p\/the-foreign-backed-attempted-assassination\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">close<\/a> with Nick Fuentes and <a href=\"https:\/\/radixjournal.substack.com\/p\/discourse-pollution\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Richard Spencer<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Johnson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/peter-thiel-fbi-informant-charles-johnson-johnathan-buma-chs-genius-2023-10\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">was an informant<\/a> to FBI Counterintelligence agent Jonathan Buma before he was removed from the program in 2021. The left has lionized Buma for continuing the Russiagate claims against Trump, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/fbi-didnt-care-giuliani-compromised-by-kremlin-whistleblower-buma-2023-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rudy Giuliani<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/ng-interactive\/2025\/may\/22\/fbi-whistleblower-musk-russia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Elon Musk<\/a> with <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JD_Cashless\/status\/1914406436651610310\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Johnson&rsquo;s assistance<\/a>. Claiming to work with the government, Johnson celebrated Douglass Mackey&rsquo;s arrest for posting anti-Hillary memes and <a href=\"https:\/\/charlesjohnson.substack.com\/p\/on-constructs-and-their-unmasking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">went after<\/a> Mike Benz and <a href=\"https:\/\/charlesjohnson.substack.com\/p\/changing-my-mind-about-claremont\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the &ldquo;Claremont Jews&rdquo;<\/a> in Substack rants. <\/p>\n<p>Lambert&rsquo;s victory is not a blow against the &ldquo;far-right,&rdquo; but against a doxxer and wannabe Deep State operative.<\/p>\n<p>According to Lambert&rsquo;s lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of Texas, Johnson claimed to be working on behalf of the government to encourage people to invest with him. He threatened government reprisals when they didn&rsquo;t.<\/p>\n<p>On June 23, Federal Judge Mark Pittman <a href=\"https:\/\/assets2.pacermonitor.com\/filings\/Point_Bridge_Capital_LLC_v_Johnson\/Point_Bridge_Capital_LLC_v_Johnson__txndce-24-00988__0073.0.pdf?Expires=1751335523&amp;Signature=qYbKxRSp4W79jaK8DiWXu77akUmuRfeDvhZefpJ9OmIt286uUhI-bYSG1zlnkCBo3AhG22b8Wtj0y71HrRa6s7vHmPpRR0GZBInC2ydSRuY6X1hkMpZolGGzvzNenLm~mNBMt7jdBhUPULoicJ8mk3p3DZgxG~Zs3BhMBEwKkc5D2ttvvSwX~fCC3cdqYtSdme2L~Y19ihCJ8hzs-d1Mru12l7efpmc8Hgv5GuallWP9De5j9hz0S9FysMi9O7SC3rN39CxZDMifx9kzasQ3RDh~jwSLgkXFr1Sd6GWwMbagMHgpAdSmbkRFXk9cwjLEhPKKxZ0hlSp~pShRe45TJg__&amp;Key-Pair-Id=K2D7QWCRVB398G\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">found Johnson liable<\/a> to Lambert and his company Point Bridge by default, for a &ldquo;fraud and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/member-of-michael-jacksons-second-family-allegedly-extorting-his-estate-for-213-million\/\" title=\"Member of Michael Jackson&#039;s &#039;Second Family&#039; Allegedly Extorting His Estate for 3 Million\">extortion scheme&#038;rdquo<\/a>; where he presented himself as an &ldquo;intelligence agent[] or asset[] of U.S. government agencies.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Lambert is well-known in Republican donor circles, having served as Ted Cruz&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/05\/17\/cruz-super-pac-story\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">finance chair<\/a> and founding the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pointbridgecapital.com\/etf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MAGA ETF<\/a>. Johnson had twice sued Lambert, and both claims were dismissed.<\/p>\n<p>After Johnson&rsquo;s second lawsuit was thrown out, Lambert sued him last fall. The suit accused Johnson, along with partner Gator Greenwill, of using his fabricated ties to intelligence agencies to extort private companies into doing business with him.<\/p>\n<p>For example, it alleged they &ldquo;told Lambert about their government connections and said that Greenwill was associated with the CIA and could help Point Bridge and Mr. Lambert secure government contracts and funding for companies in which they invested.&rdquo; Conversely, they &ldquo;communicated that they could use their influence to interfere and stymie such companies&rsquo; chances of securing government contracts and funding.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>When Lambert and Umbra Space refused to give Johnson $100 million in stock, he said he was &ldquo;with the Defense Department&rdquo; and that he would destroy the company by cutting off its supply of government contracts.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint rattles off a long list of other strange lies told by Johnson, including accusing Lambert of being a Russian and Israeli asset, accusing Lambert of being &ldquo;maybe a front for the cartels,&rdquo; and claiming &ldquo;CIA connections&rdquo; had ordered him to sue Lambert.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the litigation, Johnson tested how far a civil defendant could go without a judge throwing him in jail from sheer frustration.<\/p>\n<p>In both the Point Bridge case and a separate lawsuit still unfolding in the Southern District of New York over the facial-recognition start-up Clearview, Johnson has made extraordinary steps to avoid discovery.<\/p>\n<p>In the SDNY suit, he took the novel approach of telling Judge Katherine Polk Failla that he couldn&rsquo;t comply with a discovery order because two Department of Homeland Security agents had ordered him not to. She contacted DHS to confirm that the agents Johnson claimed to be obeying did not even exist.<\/p>\n<p>In Texas, Johnson attempted to escape the court&rsquo;s jurisdiction by swearing an affidavit that he had never lived in Texas during the relevant period, despite having voted in Texas, made campaign donations from a Texas address, and even filed and lost a lawsuit in Texas, whose <a href=\"https:\/\/caselaw.findlaw.com\/court\/us-5th-circuit\/2156511.html#:~:text=At%2520first%252C%2520Johnson%2520based%2520jurisdiction,and%2520owns%2520no%2520property%2520there.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">losing appeal<\/a> revolved around his Texas residency.<\/p>\n<p>He also tried to evade the case by arguing that he was unable to travel because of Fuchs&rsquo; disease, a form of progressive vision loss, while posting a travelogue including a driving selfie on his Substack.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Johnson promised to turn over his phone messages, but never did. On May 8, Johnson&rsquo;s lawyer quit due to non-payment. At the same hearing, Johnson was ordered to comply with a set of discovery requests for documents, tweets, direct messages, and other similar materials. Judge Pittman set a May 29 deadline, which Johnson ignored. Instead, he posted on Substack that his defiance was deliberate: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s an honor to pay sanctions for expressing my viewpoint.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>On June 5, Judge Pittman warned Johnson that he was receiving his &ldquo;last warning&rdquo; and he must &ldquo;either comply with the Court&rsquo;s orders or you will be held in contempt.&rdquo; Pittman gave him a week to surrender his devices to a third-party vendor to search for relevant discovery.&nbsp;The night&nbsp; of the deadline,&nbsp;he posted a <a href=\"https:\/\/charlesjohnson.substack.com\/p\/are-these-the-steve-miller-riots\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rambling blog post<\/a> on how&nbsp;Stephen Miller is &ldquo;Bibi&rsquo;s guy in the White House,&rdquo; but he did not turn over his devices.<\/p>\n<p>On June 18, Judge Pittman asked Johnson if he had complied with the discovery requests. Johnson once again said he had not, this time offering the excuse that he could not afford the costs of compliance. Pittman scolded Johnson, &ldquo;You are becoming a drain on resources. You are a drain to the county, to the government, to this court.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Judge Pittman finally had enough and granted Lambert a default judgment, meaning Johnson lost the lawsuit for failing to obey court orders, without Lambert needing to prove his case.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It became evident to the Court that not only did its threat to place Johnson in the custody of the Marshal not affect Johnson, but he wished the Court [would] arrest him so that he could portray it as further evidence of his self-proclaimed martyrdom,&rdquo; Pittman&rsquo;s order states, citing Johnson&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/charlesjohnson.substack.com\/p\/notes-on-the-state-of-israel-and\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">musings<\/a> that going to jail for contempt might be his first step toward one day becoming president.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the case, Johnson <a href=\"https:\/\/charlesjohnson.substack.com\/p\/victory-in-fort-worth-amid-a-71-million\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">repeatedly<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/charlesjohnson.substack.com\/p\/is-elon-musk-funding-a-lawsuit-against\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">insisted<\/a> that Elon Musk was funding the lawsuit. Johnson&rsquo;s primary evidence: Lambert&rsquo;s attorney initially worked for the law firm Quinn Emmanuel and moved to DLA Piper, which both represented Musk or his companies.<\/p>\n<p>On July 14, Johnson appeared in court wearing a wrinkled suit and a tattered tie.&nbsp;He stated, under oath, that he was not a wealthy individual and did not have &ldquo;tens of millions of dollars.&rdquo; When Lambert&rsquo;s attorney asked about emails in which Johnson claimed to be worth that much, Johnson claimed that Elon Musk had hacked his email.<\/p>\n<p>I attended the trial. During the lunch break, Johnson asked if he could write a message in my notebook, and wrote &ldquo;I am going to win, but not the game you think I am playing.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>While some jurisdictions allow pro se litigants to narrate their testimony, the court required Johnson to ask questions to himself. Johnson made this cumbersome requirement farcical by cross-examining himself in the third person.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Mr. Johnson, is it true you were possibly directed to go after the media apparatus formerly known as Gawker Media?&rdquo; and responded, &ldquo;Why yes, Mr. Johnson, that is true.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>During closing arguments, Johnson stated that he needed money to &ldquo;buy his ex-wife back&rdquo; and ranted on for minutes about his divorce. He added that he had a new girlfriend who &ldquo;may or may not work for the government.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>After half an hour of deliberation, the jury awarded Lambert and Point Bridge Capital $15.5 million for civil RICO, which is trebled to $46.5 million; $9.5 million for defamation; and $15 million in punitive damages, totaling $71 million. Johnson will also be responsible for Lambert&rsquo;s attorney&rsquo;s fees.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The $71 million judgment is just the start of Johnson&rsquo;s troubles. On July 2, Johnson was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrat-wants-to-put-josh-hawley-and-ted-cruz-on-the-no-fly-list\/\" title=\"Democrat Wants To Put Josh Hawley And Ted Cruz On The No...Fly List\">found liable<\/a> for judgment in New York for Breach of Contract in the Clearview case.<\/p>\n<p>Both judges have noted Johnson lied to the court about his government contacts. Judge Pittman stated at a hearing, &ldquo;until Mr. Johnson is brought up on federal, state, or criminal charges one day, this behavior by him will never end.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>While a default judgment, he was found liable for a RICO conspiracy based on blackmail, fraud, and extortion.&nbsp;Most significantly, his former FBI handler, Jonathan Buma, was <a href=\"https:\/\/oig.justice.gov\/news\/press-release\/former-fbi-special-agent-arrested-disclosure-confidential-information\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">arrested<\/a> for unlawful disclosure of confidential information in March and faces trial in December. Johnson has <a href=\"https:\/\/charlesjohnson.substack.com\/p\/on-my-extracurricular-activities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bragged<\/a> about collaborating with Buma to leak information long after he stopped being an informant.<\/p>\n<p>Whether civil or criminal, Johnson will be tied up in court for the foreseeable future, with serious consequences on the horizon.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Tony Ortiz is the publisher of the Texas Political News Site Current Revolt. He has attended the trial and all the hearings discussed in this article.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas jury orders Chuck Johnson to pay $71M in lawsuit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3952,"featured_media":2465567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screen-Shot-2025-07-17-at-2.03.39-PM-1024x578.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[59709,22184,15512],"class_list":["post-2465566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-chuck-johnson","tag-racketeering","tag-troll"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screen-Shot-2025-07-17-at-2.03.39-PM-1024x578.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3952"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2465566"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2465570,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2465566\/revisions\/2465570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2465567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2465566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2465566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2465566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}