Overview

• Nunes sued in March 2021 after a segment on March 18 of that year in which Maddow said he refused to hand over a December 2019 package from Ukrainian legislator Andrii Derkach to the FBI.
• The judge observed that Maddow and her executive producer based their broadcast on information from other media outlets.
• Castel highlighted the lack of evidence showing that Maddow knew of a July 2020 Politico report confirming the FBI had taken the package.
• Derkach was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in September 2020 for election interference and later charged with money laundering and sanctions violations; he remains at large.
• The dismissal underscores the high threshold public figures must meet under the actual malice standard established by New York Times v. Sullivan.