CMR is the leading provider
of funding and management
support for small to
medium-sized businesses and
entrepreneurs
Established 1984 C MR
is the leading venture
capital, management
support and business
services provider for
small to medium-sized
businesses - linking
excellent management
skills with the
substantial financial
resources of a global bank
of private investors.
CMR has over 450 senior
executives, operating
in the UK, USA, Europe, Asia,
Australasia and
globally,
providing both funding and
specialist help for
entrepreneurial
businesses .
For Businesses
CMR provides excellent
resources:
CMR FundEX Business Exchange - gives all companies & entrepreneurs direct access to CMR's global investor base.
CMR Catalyst Group
Programme -
transform
profitability through
merging.
CMR Company Sales Division helps owners to exit
at the best price.
CMR Corporate Recovery
Division -
experts in rescue and
turnaround.
CMR Technology Licensing
Division -
commercialising
innovation.
CMR Executive
Professionals - management support
and consultancy.
CMR Executives-on-Demandâ„¢ Fully experienced
senior executives
available quickly and
cost effectively.
We always welcome
contact with new
business clients- please get in touch
- we will do our
best to match
your needs and exceed
your expectations.
For Investors
Preferential access to new opportunities for investment and/or acquisition
P re-vets
propositions and
provides a
personalised service
to our investors
Syndication service
enabling investors to
link together as desired
Executive and
management support for
investments as needed
CMR's services to
our investors are not
only fast & efficient
but also free
W e
always appreciate new
members- you are welcome
to join as an investor
or as a CMR Executive.
When you
join us as a Senior
Executive:
CMR's strength is in the
skills and experience of
our executive members -
all senior, director level
people with years of
successfully running and
managing companies.
Because the demand for
CMR's support and services
is ever-increasing,
especially as we enter
recessionary times, we
have a growing need for
more high calibre
executives to join us from
every industry and
discipline.
You will be using your
considerable experience to
help smaller businesses
and entrepreneurs to grow
profitably.
We offer full training
and mentoring support to
help maximise potential.
We are
always keen to find more
high calibre senior
executives in all areas-
skills and location.
Make contact with us today
and maximise your
opportunities.
HEAD
OFFICE
124 City Road
London EC1 2NX
Tel: +44 (0)207-636-1744
Fax:+44 (0)207-636-5639
Email: cmr@cmruk.com
Registered Office:
124 City Road ,
London EC1 2NX
Also Glasgow,
Dublin, Switzerland, Europe, USA/Canada
Privacy Statement: CMR only
retains personal details
supplied directly by executives
joining CMR themselves either as
Full Executive Members or
Interim Management Members or
Investors. Those details are
only used within CMR and not
disclosed to any third parties
without that person’s
agreement. We will keep that
data until requested by the
person to be removed – at that
point it will be deleted.
Personal data is never sold or
used for purposes outside of
CMR’s normal operations. Any
correspondence should be
directed to the Managing
Director, CMR,
Kemp House,
152-160 City Road, London EC1V
2N
Senior Executives
CMR is a worldwide network of senior executives. Join us to expand your career and business horizons.
Business Entrepreneurs
CMR has a complete range of resources & services provided by experts to help all businesses to grow and prosper.
Investors & Venturers
CMR has a continuous stream of business and funding propositions, which are matched to investor preferences. Join us - it's FREE!
FundEX
FundEX is CMR's worldwide stock market for small to medium sized companies and entrepreneurs to raise new capital.
Interim & Permanent Management
Many of CMR's executives can be recruited on an interim, permanent or NED basis.
Login
Main CMR Intranet members only
Regional Intranets
Fri, 19 Dec 2025 01:05:00 +0000 China Sues Sen. Schmitt And Others For Defamation Over COVID-19 Lawsuit
China Sues Sen. Schmitt And Others For Defamation Over COVID-19 Lawsuit
China Sues Sen. Schmitt And Others For Defamation Over COVID-19 Lawsuit
Authored by Jonathan Turley,
Years ago, I called the pandemic arguably the greatest case of negligence in the history of torts. However, with millions dead and hundreds of billions expended, it was unlikely that China would ever be truly held accountable for its actions. Those failures include not only the alleged release of the virus from the Wuhan lab but also China’s concealment of the release until it had spread globally. A $24 billion judgment was secured in Missouri earlier this year, but China defied the verdict.
Now, it has countersued, naming former Missouri Attorney General and now Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., among others as defendants. Even by the standards of the Chinese legal system, this action is legally absurd. However, in the CCP-controlled court system, the verdict is little in doubt.
China posted a notice of the lawsuit in Wuhan, naming the state of Missouri and Andrew T. Bailey, in addition to Schmitt. Bailey is listed in the notice as the current Missouri Attorney General, but he recently left that job to become the FBI’s co-deputy director.
After international service under the International Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters, the defendants are called to appear before the Intermediate People’s Court of Wuhan Municipality of Hubei Province, Jianghan District in Wuhan. They are being sued for $356.4 billion Chinese Yuan, or $50.5 billion — just over twice the amount awarded in Missouri.
The complaint demands “public apologies on New York Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, YouTube and other American media or internet platforms, and People’s Daily, Xinhuanet and other Chinese media or internet platforms…”
The filing is premised on their bringing a successful action against China in United States courts and effectively defaming Wuhan, Chinese officials, and the government generally. I have taught torts for over 30 years and would be hard pressed to come up with a more meritless claim, but law means little in the Chinese court system.
The Missouri action named the Chinese government, various ministries, the Communist Party of China, the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences as defendants. They were found to have withheld information about the COVID-19 virus, failed to contain the outbreak, and actively hoarded high-quality personal protective equipment (PPE) while producing and selling lower-quality PPE to the rest of the world.
After securing the largest damage award in that state’s history, the current Attorney General filed with the U.S. State Department for diplomatic provided service to China in November 2025. Once service is confirmed, Missouri can return to the district court to obtain certification of compliance with service and seek to seize Chinese-owned assets, including real property, financial interests, and other holdings tied to the defendants.
That is what clearly prompted this tit-for-tat litigation in Wuhan.
The Chinese lawsuit names the defendants as an economic and reputational threat to the People’s Republic of China. It argues that their actions have had “negative effects on the soft power” of Wuhan and have “belittled the social evaluation” as well as adversely affected the “productivity and commercialization of scientific and technological achievements” of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
It cites the defendants as having engaged in “vexatious litigation” that “defamed Plaintiffs’ reputation, resulting in huge economic losses of the Plaintiffs, and deeply endangering sovereignty, security and development interests of China.”
Obviously, this is not vexatious litigation in any actual legal sense. The Missouri litigation was based on long-established legal precedent, even if the judgment itself against a foreign nation was unprecedented in size.
The notion that these allegations constitute defamation is absurd. First, these allegations are well-established by various countries. China enlisted the World Health Organization (WHO) and others to echo its denials about the virus’s origin. Even after the Biden Administration sought to suppress evidence and views implicating China, federal agencies and experts ultimately refuted those denials.
Even under the more demanding standard that applies to public officials and public figures (known as the “actual malice” standard), China would fall short. There is ample and credible evidence to support these statements, including findings from other countries.
There is also a type of group libel element to the Chinese action.
Such lawsuits are very difficult to maintain. In Neiman-Marcus v. Lait (1952), a New York federal district court addressed a defamation claim arising from the publication of the book “U.S.A. Confidential.” The author wrote that “some” models and “all” saleswomen at the Neiman-Marcus department store in Dallas were “call girls.” It also claimed that “most” of the salesmen in the men’s store were “faggots.” The store had nine models, 382 saleswomen and 25 salesmen. The court found the size of the group of women was too big to satisfy a group libel standard. However, the size of the group of salesmen was viewed as sufficiently small to go to trial.
Here, China is suggesting that not only was the entire Wuhan staff but the entire nation was effectively defamed. That absurd claim was actually tried by a Chinese American group in the United States over Trump’s reference to COVID-19 as Kung Flu. The Chinese American Civil Rights Coalition brought that meritless case, which was quickly dismissed.
China is clearly hoping to engineer a verdict and then somehow use it to counterbalance or negate the Missouri judgment. It will still be tough for Missouri to ever collect on this judgment. However, the verdict was an important effort to secure a judgment on China’s conduct leading to a worldwide pandemic.
One has to assume that the Wuhan court will dutifully render a verdict to counter Missouri.
It will do little beyond confirming in the mind of many that China is as nimble at manipulating the legal system as it is at allegedly manipulating spike proteins.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/18/2025 - 20:05 Close
Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:40:00 +0000 Did Abu Dhabi Just Deliver A Santa Rally: OpenAI To Raise $100BN From Sovereign Wealth Funds
Did Abu Dhabi Just Deliver A Santa Rally: OpenAI To Raise $100BN From Sovereign Wealth Funds
While the broader stock market has meandered both higher and lower in the subsequent two months, the Mag 7 trade peaked on Oct 31 and has b
Read more.....
Did Abu Dhabi Just Deliver A Santa Rally: OpenAI To Raise $100BN From Sovereign Wealth Funds
While the broader stock market has meandered both higher and lower in the subsequent two months, the Mag 7 trade peaked on Oct 31 and has been drifting sideways - and lower - ever since.
What happened on that date? That was the day of the infamous All Things podcast , in which Brad Gerstner (an OpenAi investor) pointed out that the emperor is, indeed, naked and asked Sam Altman how a company with $13BN in revenue can afford $1.4 Trillion in commitments. Altman's non-reply? “Happy to find a buyer for your shares.” Translation: No answer... and how could Sam possibly answer: after all there is no way on earth that OpenAI could ever grow into its future obligations absent a miracle, an act of God... or uncle Sam.
A few days later, Altman delivered a far more troubling answer, and one which connected the mathematical dots for everyone, when it was reported that OpenAI was seeking a government guarantee , which would help "attract the enormous investment needed for AI computing and infrastructure ." But far more concerning was the other implication of the report: without a government guarantee, there was no way that OpenAI could satisfy the $1.4 trillion in commitments, which also meant that the entire AI bubble, which was built on circular deals where rehypothecated promises for capex investments among the hyperscalers were contingent on some nebulous future revenue stream, was about to burst.
Also, with OpenAI tacitly conceding the need for a government guarantee, the entire AI sector came under immediate and immense scrutiny, and as a result of analysts finally doing elementary math (which we had done months earlier) and realizing that the AI cycle would need trillions in debt, suddenly the weakest credits in the space like CoreWeave and Oracle (see "Oracle Is First AI Domino To Fall After Barclays Downgrades Its Debt To Sell ") saw not only their bond (and stock) prices tumble, but their odds of bankruptcy in just 5 years soar, pushing their CDS to record wides.
And yet maybe the market, in its passion to punish the weakest AI links, had gone too far: we suggested as much last night when we showed just how much ORCL CDS has underperformed the company's stock. After all, was it truly realistic that Oracle, one of the biggest tech giants in the world, would go bankrupt in the next 5 years?
Well, if the company continued to lever up massively and invest its cash into dead end capex projects, while OpenAi and its peers failed to provide Oracle with the much needed cash the company needed to keep growing its market share and fund its growth (via capex), the answer apparently was a resounding yes.
Unless... there was a miracle.
Well, late on Thursday a miracle may have finally arrived. Because in a time when it was increasingly unclear how OpenAI et al , would generate the required revenue to pay their hyperscaler partners for the data centers they needed to impress the world with their chatbot wares, while stable sources of private credit such as Blue Owl had suddenly closed shop when it comes to Oracle, a government guarantee appears to have finally emerged.
Only it wasn't the US (at least not yet), but rather the emirate of Abu Dhabi that may have not only averted the bursting of the AI bubble, but also delivered the 2025 Christmas Rally in the last possible moment.
According to the WSJ, OpenAI - desperate to secure funding for its cash incinerating years which are expected to conclude around 2030 during which time more than $200 billion will be spent - is aiming to raise as much as $100 billion as it seeks to pay for ambitious growth plans in a market that has cooled recently on the artificial-intelligence boom.
The fundraising round could value the company at as much as $830 billion, if it raises the full amount it is targeting. Of course, the implied enterprise value is meaningless: it's just a number; what is all too real, however, is the actual amount of cash Sam Altman would get (in exchange for a sizable chunk of equity, confirming just how problematic using far cheaper debt capital raising has become for OpenAI). And that's a doozy: $100 billion should be more than enough to provide OpenAI with the cash it needs to bridge the period until it is profitable all the while rolling out increasingly more lifelike AI models (especially now that Google's Gemini 3 has taken the lead from OpenAI). More importantly, the cash invested into OpenAI, and promptly spent on compute, will fund such clients as Oracle, Core Weave and others as it percolates across the entire budding AI industry.
Here, the WSJ adds the usual disclaimer, that the startup aims to complete the round by the end of the first quarter at the earliest, and that terms of the deal could still change; it is also unclear whether there will be sufficient investor demand to reach the goal.
The round will present one of the biggest tests the company has faced since the public market’s exuberance for AI spending waned. Chief Executive Sam Altman has already scoured the world to build the pool of OpenAI’s investors and the company is now weighing a potential initial public offering, The Wall Street Journal previously reported.
Of course, Sam Altman had already found some gullible investors to throw good money after bad, most notably Masa Son's SoftBank, which agreed to invest $30 billion in OpenAI earlier this year and last month sold its Nvidia stake for $5.8 billion to fund the OpenAI bet. OpenAI is expected to secure the remaining $22.5 billion in planned financing from SoftBank by the end of the year.
But that's not nearly enough: after all, recall that we are talking a whopping $1.4 trillion in commitments in the next five years.
So who is the next most gullible source of capital after SoftBank these days? Why Gulf cash of course.
Which brings us to the source of the government guarantee: as we said, it's not the US (just yet); instead it is the United Arab Emirates.
As the WSJ reports, OpenAI is expected to recruit sovereign-wealth funds to invest in the financing, given the scale. The company has previously secured funding from United Arab Emirates-based MGX; it will likely get even more funding from the UAE because considering how much money has already been sunk into OpenAI, UAE companies don't really have a choice to not keep investing - and risk the collapse of Altman's venture. They have to keep throwing good money after bad; such is the curse of the Too Big To Fail, which was banks in 2008... and now it's AI firms.
The company has faced skepticism over computing deals it has forged that are worth hundreds of billions of dollars and issued a “code red” to beat back a growing threat from Google. While OpenAI is set to burn more than $200 billion in cash through 2030, Google has low levels of debt and robust profits, which could make it easier to invest further in AI.
And since OpenAI is private, the market has instead turned its attention to such OpenAI partners as Oracle and CoreWeave, who have seen their market values plunge in recent months as shareholders soured on the possibility of capital shortfalls and bold plans for data-center build-outs that appear to face financing headwinds.
But now, the looming $100 billion equity investment from the likes of UAE sovereign wealth funds has changed all that, and with OpenAI set to prefund 2 years (or more) of growth (while materially diluting existing investors) not only are OpenAI's chances to emerge as the ultimate AI victory suddenly much higher, but so are the odds of Oracle and CoreWeave to survive the next few years without filing for bankruptcy.
Which is why not only has ORCL stock soared after hours...
... but why we expect that tomorrow ORCL CDS will plunge from its 16 year high of ~156bps, since not only will OpenAI have billions in cash to spend around on the likes of Oracle, but the cost of holding on to the negative carrying ORCL CDS will suddenly seem excessive, and we expect a short covering frenzy across all AI-linked credit default swaps.
And now that the biggest risk factor for AI is suddenly no longer a near-term concern - courtesy of all that Abu Dhabi housing bubble cash which just has to be reinvested somewhere - it is possible that the UAE may have just delivered a broad market rally just in time for Santa.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/18/2025 - 19:40 Close
Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:15:00 +0000 Peak Wokeism & More: Doug Casey On 2025's Defining Events And What Comes Next
Peak Wokeism & More: Doug Casey On 2025's Defining Events And What Comes Next
Peak Wokeism & More: Doug Casey On 2025's Defining Events And What Comes Next
Via InternationalMan.com,
International Man: As we step back and look at 2025—politically, economically, technologically, and culturally—which developments mattered the most?
Doug Casey: Politically, and in every other way, it’s all about Trump . As Shakespeare said of Julius Caesar, “he doth bestride the narrow world. Like a Colossus, and we petty men. Walk under his huge legs and peep about. To find ourselves dishonorable graves.”
Trump has his finger in everything, in all countries, all spheres of enterprise, everywhere. He’s a political phenomenon with authoritarian tendencies. Which is a natural consequence of an unstable “democracy.” In fact, Caesar rose to power because of the late Roman Republic’s chronic political instability—much of which he caused. Trump could be America’s answer to Caesar.
I made that observation to a friend who, like me, is prone to classical references. He countered that perhaps Trump sees himself as a Cincinnatus lookalike. Cincinnatus, you’ll recall, was a patrician citizen appointed dictator in about 458 BC to deal with a military emergency. He quickly did so. Instead of serving out the rest of his six-month term, he handed back his power and returned to his farm.
Trump sees that the US is on the cusp of a cultural crisis, and wants to avert it. He’s certainly a cultural conservative who wants to return the country to the halcyon days of yesteryear, the way it was in “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best.” But he’s also a narcissist and a megalomaniac, trying to reorder the world by signing hundreds of Executive Orders, creating chaos with his tariffs, subsidies, threats, attacks, and arbitrary blustering. At heart, Trump is a Caesar, not a Cincinnatus,
Economically, the U.S. is imitating Argentina. His actions are pretty much those of Perón, who was responsible for the destruction of the Argentine economy: tariffs to protect domestic industries, lots of arbitrary regulations, and government “partnerships” with corporations. Both Peron and Trump are reminiscent of Mussolini. It’s a slippery slope.
He’s surrounded himself with sycophants and lickspittles. His tariffs have an excellent chance of upending both the domestic and world economies. He claims that he will replace the income tax with tariffs, which sounds great. It’s true that tariffs paid for over 75% of government expenditures up to 1916. But that was when Federal spending was tiny, about 1.5% of GDP. Today, the only way to reduce taxes is to reduce spending—but Trump loves spending. DOGE is long forgotten. I predict he’ll outdo FDR by every measure in spending.
He claims to have ended eight wars around the world: Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the DRC and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, Israel and Gaza. In each and every case, there’s been zero change in the fundamentals. Any ceasefires were the result of threats and bribery. By intervening, the US is likely to involve itself militarily in these places. Not to mention that he’s at the point of starting a war with Venezuela. Trump loves hyperbole, prevarication, and half-truths. His word is approaching zero value, both inside and outside the US.
There’s so much more. Will ICE ever be disbanded? Will it deport 30 million illegal aliens? Will tourism from advanced countries, worth about $250 billion a year, collapse with Trump’s new demands for vast amounts of personal data? Even though Zelensky can be shown to have personally looted several billion dollars, will he be reinstated as Ukraine’s president? What will the consequences be of Trump’s promiscuously granting pardons to friendly billionaires? Will he get away with the billion-dollar rug pull on his and Melania’s worthless cryptocoins?
We’re in a state of political chaos.
Financially, the destruction of the currency can only accelerate when Trump gets his new Fed chairman.
Technologically, we’re in an AI bubble. I don’t doubt that AI will enable huge scientific advances, but I wonder if the hundreds of billions going into AI will ever show an economic return. If not, the losses could result in real upset. The amounts are so large that—apart from the deleterious ways it can be used—they might cause a real drop in the general standard of living. Or at least catalyze a stock market collapse. The old saying “high-tech, big wreck” will likely once again prove true, even if AI changes the world for the better—which is not a certainty.
On the bright side, SpaceX can build giant rockets with large payloads and reuse them multiple times, cutting costs by a factor of 10 or 100. Bezos’ Blue Origin is doing the same. As are the Chinese. Technologically, 2025 was a great year, and in the long run, technology is what drives civilization. Loads of civilizations, governments, religions, and ideologies have risen and fallen in the 12,000 years since the end of the last Ice Age. The one thing that’s progressed on an accelerating curve, bringing mankind out of the mud, is technology.
There’s cause for long-term optimism, even if some bad things happen. However, technology needs more capital than ever. And if the economic, financial, political, and cultural problems—including Wokism and the resurgence of Islam—make it impossible to accumulate adequate capital, even the great flywheel of technology could slow down.
The biggest problem is cultural Wokeism.
Maybe the election of Trump signals peak Wokeism; many sensible people are reacting against it. But its underlying causes in the educational system, and the hive mind of Boobus americanus , are still there.
The optimist in me says that 2025 probably signals a turning point.
International Man: 2025 seemed to accelerate the delegitimization of major institutions—the media, academia, government, and even central banks.
Has the loss of trust reached the point of no return? What does that imply for the stability of the US and other countries going forward?
Doug Casey: Not so long ago, the electronic media meant CBS, NBC, and ABC. I’m not saying they were particularly truthful, but newsmen like Huntley and Brinkley, Edward R Murrow, and Walter Cronkite were thoughtful and independent. Their spoken words had more credibility than the writing in manipulative newspaper behemoths like those of Pulitzer and Hearst. Print publishers were replaced by electronic networks. Now, blow-dried lookalike corporate newscasters have lost credibility. They’ve been replaced by independent media, podcasts, and blogs. It’s true that the old institutions have been delegitimized. It’s much as Buckminster Fuller said: “You don’t change things by destroying the old order; you change the old order by making it irrelevant.”
The same thing is happening with academia. It’s become obvious to almost everybody that college is a negative value. Parents are aware that, starting in grade school, their kids are subjected to standardized indoctrination. Schools have become corrupt babysitters that enrich administrators while impoverishing their customers.
Let me draw your attention to a current series called The Chair about a totally woke mid-level Ivy League university on the edge of chaos. I mention it because I had trouble figuring out whether it was a spoof of the educational system or a semi-documentary description of it.
As for government, I suppose people are genetically programmed to want leaders. Just in my lifetime, governments have become vastly more powerful and coercive. On the other hand, the concepts of libertarianism and anarcho-capitalism have gone from things that nobody had even heard of to being widely discussed. And people are even starting to understand how central banks create fiat money, and that an increase in the money supply is what causes inflation. Even that meme is getting traction.
So there’s some cause for optimism regarding the delegitimization of corrupt old institutions. But if trust collapses too far, and everywhere, that implies bad things for the stability of society.
The U.S. used to be a high-trust culture with shared values and long-term time preferences. But now, with the mass immigration of vastly different cultures with conflicting values and very short-term time preferences, that’s changing—and not for the better. The new migrants sense that traditional American institutions in the U.S. are washing away, and they’re taking advantage of it.
International Man: Economically, 2025 was a paradox: financial markets hit new highs while the average household struggled under rising debt and falling real wages.
What does this divergence tell you about the underlying state of the economy—and where does it lead from here?
Doug Casey: The health and direction of the stock market and the economy are two different things. The massive money creation that’s gone on in the U.S. for decades, but especially over the last 10 years, has found its way into the stock market as a place to hide, out of self-preservation. I think both the stock market and the economy are riding for a fall.
International Man: It seems to many that the US is approaching a period of major political, social, and institutional upheaval. Do you think the country is at the beginning of a broader historical shift?
Doug Casey : Strauss and Howe’s book, The Fourth Turning , predicted a major upset would occur about now. But they didn’t predict who would win. I agree. My only prediction is that the US will be a different place in 10 years. Whether it will be “better” or “worse” is an open question.
* * *
Doug Casey’s candid assessment of 2025 makes one thing clear: we’re living through a historic inflection point—politically, economically, and culturally. But this conversation only scratches the surface. In a new free special report, Doug Casey’s Top 7 Predictions , Doug goes a step further, laying out the key trends he believes will define the decade—and what they mean for your wealth, freedom, and future. Learn how to position yourself to not just survive, but thrive, in today’s volatile economic and political environment. Click here to get it now.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/18/2025 - 19:15 Close
Thu, 18 Dec 2025 23:50:00 +0000 Dan Bongino to Resign As FBI Deputy Director
Dan Bongino to Resign As FBI Deputy Director
After less than a year on the job, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced his resignation.
Read more.....
Dan Bongino to Resign As FBI Deputy Director
After less than a year on the job, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino announced his resignation.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Deputy Director Dan Bongino leaves after a meeting at the U.S. Capitol on June 25, 2025. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
"I will be leaving my position with the FBI in January ," he said in a Wednesday post on X.
"I want to thank President Trump, [Attorney General Pam] Bondi, and [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel for the opportunity to serve with purpose," he continued. "Most importantly, I want to thank you, my fellow Americans, for the privilege to serve you."
"God bless America, and all those who defend Her."
Hours before the announcement President Donald Trump signaled that Bongino was out.
"Dan did a great job," he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland earlier yesterday, adding "I think he wants to go back to his show. "
Bongino, meanwhile, told Fox News "I gave up everything for this. My wife is struggling. I'm not a victim. It's fine. I'm proud I did this. But if you think we're there for tea and crumpets...we're there all day," adding "I stare at these 4 walls all day separated from my wife in DC."
As the Epoch Times notes further, Bongino, who started his career as an officer for the New York Police Department and special agent for the U.S. Secret Service, was most known for being a political commentator on Fox News since 2013 and for hosting The Dan Bongino show on Rumble, before he joined the FBI in February 2025.
Social media users, including current and former Fox News contributors such as Nicole Saphier and Trish Regan, commended Bongino for his work. Regan said she looked forward to seeing him broadcast again.
The Epoch Times contacted Fox News for comment on whether Bongino would return, but did not receive an immediate response.
Bongino did not have prior experience in the FBI before he was tapped for the No. 2 position under Patel.
“Dan is the best partner I could’ve asked for in helping restore this FBI,” Patel posted on X Wednesday night.
“He brought critical reforms to make the organization more efficient, led the successful Summer Heat op, served as the people’s voice for transparency, and delivered major breakthroughs in long unsolved cases like the pipe bomb investigation. And that’s only a small part of the work he went about every single day delivering for America.”
The FBI has not yet named a replacement for the position, which does not require Senate confirmation.
During Bongino’s brief tenure, he clashed with the Justice Department over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files after he spent years on his podcast demanding answers about the financier and sex offender’s 2019 death and high-profile connections.
Despite the reported disagreements over handling of the files, Trump said in July that their relationship remained close in July, calling Bongino “a very good guy.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/18/2025 - 18:50 Close
Thu, 18 Dec 2025 23:25:00 +0000 America's Rapidly Growing Happiness Deficit
America's Rapidly Growing Happiness Deficit
America's Rapidly Growing Happiness Deficit
Authored by Michael Snyder,
We possess technology that would have been unimaginable to people living 100 years ago, we have access to more entertainment than any other generation in human history, and we have been enjoying an artificially-inflated standard of living that has been fueled by an unprecedented debt binge for decades. So why are so many of us so miserable? One out of every eight Americans is taking an antidepressant, more than 48 million Americans have a substance use disorder, the suicide rate has been trending in the wrong direction for years, and according to Gallup the percentage of U.S. adults that are currently dealing with depression has nearly doubled since 2015…
The percentage of U.S. adults who report currently having or being treated for depression has exceeded 18% in both 2024 and 2025, up about eight percentage points since the initial measurement in 2015. The current rate of 18.3% measured so far in 2025 projects to an estimated 47.8 million Americans suffering from depression.
We like to think that we are smarter than all of the generations that have come before us.
If that is true, then why can’t we figure out how to be happy?
What we are doing now is clearly not working, and this is particularly true for our young people.
One study found that approximately 42 percent of Americans that belong to Generation Z have been diagnosed with “anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD” or some other mental health condition…
In fact, an estimated 42% of Gen Zers have been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, ADHD, PTSD or other mental health condition, with a staggering 60% reportedly taking medication to manage their mental health, according to a study on the respected Psychiatrist.com website.
Nobody can deny that we have failed our young people, and now we have a colossal mess on our hands.
We have never seen a group of young adults that is as unhappy as Generation Z is, and without a doubt they are feeling an enormous amount of pressure from many different directions …
Analysts point to a host of difficult, anxiety-producing issues facing Gen Z, including widespread financial worries – with college costs in the stratosphere, food more expensive than ever, home ownership out of reach for most, and two jobs often needed just to pay the rent.
Then there’s the disconcerting reality that many Gen Zers are not dating or getting married and having families – partly due to economic pressures, high anxiety and insecurity about the future, disillusionment with marriage due to the high level of divorce in their parents’ generation, and widespread reliance on dating apps. But also because they are spending so much time living in a virtual world where they can plug into and commune with every imaginable – and unimaginable – type of individual, cause, “influencer” and community on earth, all recruiting 24/7.
I think that all of the reasons mentioned in the quote above are valid.
But I think that there is another that is more important than any of them.
Over the years, Gallup has found that there is a very close link between loneliness and depression…
Gallup research has shown a strong link between depression and loneliness, as one-third of those who had experienced loneliness the day before were also currently suffering from depression, compared with 13% among those who had not.
After declining from pandemic-era highs of 25% to a range of 17% to 18% through much of 2022 and 2023, reports of individuals experiencing significant loneliness “a lot of the day yesterday” have inched upward again since the latter half of 2024 to 21%.
Even though we are more “connected” to one another through the Internet in this day and age, the truth is that we are more isolated than ever.
As a result, much of the population is desperately lonely.
We were designed to love others and to be loved by others, and if we want to turn our mental health crisis around we need to rediscover the importance of making real human connections.
But instead, many Americans are turning to drugs and alcohol to ease the emotional pain that they are feeling.
A report that was put out two years ago by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration revealed that 48.5 million Americans have a substance abuse disorder…
According to a 2023 report by the federal agency Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 48.5 million Americans aged 12 and above have a substance use disorder.
This is a national epidemic that is getting worse every single year.
It has been estimated that substance use disorders are now costing the U.S. economy more than 90 billion dollars annually …
A new study has found that substance use disorders (SUD) cost the U.S. economy just under $93 billion in 2023 from a combination of missed work, reduced work productivity and lost household productivity.
The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine on December 8, was conducted by a team at the Division of Injury Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Needless to say, drugs and alcohol are not the answer.
So a lot of people that go down that road end up giving up completely.
For decades, the suicide rate in this country has been steadily moving higher …
Since the 1950s, the suicide rate in the United States has been significantly higher among men than women. In 2022, the suicide rate among men was almost four times higher than that of women. However, the rate of suicide for both men and women has increased gradually over the past couple of decades.
This breaks my heart.
So many people are needlessly ending their own lives.
According to the CDC , an American now dies by suicide every 11 minutes…
The level of suicides among our young adults is particularly alarming.
It is being reported that the suicide rate for young adults in the 18 to 27-year-old age bracket jumped by almost 20 percent from 2014 to 2024…
The suicide rate for U.S. adults aged 18-27 increased nearly 20% between 2014 and 2024, rising from 13.8 per 100,000 people to 16.4, per a new analysis of CDC data from Stateline, a nonprofit newsroom.
We have failed our young people.
Here we are at what many believe to be “the happiest time of the year”, and yet much of the population is soul-crushingly miserable.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Previous generations of Americans were much happier, and today there are lots of people that are living lives that are absolutely teeming with joy.
So if you are feeling depressed right now, I want you to know that there is hope.
You may not realize it yet, but you are greatly loved.
Once you learn how to respond to God’s love and the love that others have for you, everything will start to change.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com .
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/18/2025 - 18:25 Close
Thu, 18 Dec 2025 23:00:00 +0000 "Children Are NOT Experiments": House-Passes Bill Criminalizing Transgender Treatments For Minors
"Children Are NOT Experiments": House-Passes Bill Criminalizing Transgender Treatments For Minors
The House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would criminalize transgender-related treatments for minors Read more.....
"Children Are NOT Experiments": House-Passes Bill Criminalizing Transgender Treatments For Minors
The House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would criminalize transgender-related treatments for minors , which includes surgical procedures and puberty blockers.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) presides over a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on Feb. 12, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times
The bill , called the "Protect Children's Innocence Act" was sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and passed in a 216-211 vote .
Three Democrats voted along with Republicans, while four Republicans voted against it, according to Greene.
"This puts a stop to the radical left’s assault on kids! Children are NOT experiments. No more drugs. No more surgeries. No more permanent harm. We need to let kids grow up without manipulation from adults to make life-altering decisions," Greene posted to X before the vote.
The law would subject anyone whop violates it to fines or up to 10 years in prison or both , though it does provide exemptions for those who medically require treatments, such as individuals with "precocious puberty, to the extent such genital or bodily mutilation or chemical castration is for the purpose of normalizing puberty."
Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-FL) praised the passage of the bill, calling it "common-sense legislation" that was meant to protect the nations' future generations.
"As a father of two young boys, I will not stand by while radical woke policies push children into permanent, life-altering medical decisions they can never undo," he stated, adding "Protecting our children isn’t a choice—it’s our moral duty."
And of course, most Democrats opposed it - with Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) calling it "the most extreme anti-transgender legislation to ever pass through."
"If this bill becomes law, doctors, pharmacists, and—in some circumstances—the parents of young trans people, would face time in prison for choosing to prioritize their child’s health," he said in a statement, adding "This bill is beyond cruel, and its passage will forever be a stain on the institution of the United States Congress."
As the Epoch Times notes further, before the vote, Greene stated that Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) introduced an amendment that would “gut the commerce clause” of her bill. She said that while his amendment would cut federal funding from transgender-related treatment providers, her commerce clause criminalizes such treatments for children.
Roy stated on Dec. 17 that he will not offer the amendment “to avoid any confusion about how united Republicans are in protecting children from these grotesque procedures.”
Greene is set to resign from Congress on Jan. 5, 2026.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/18/2025 - 18:00 Close
Thu, 18 Dec 2025 22:40:00 +0000 Police Investigate Leftist Who Harassed Elderly Target Worker Over Charlie Kirk Shirt
Police Investigate Leftist Who Harassed Elderly Target Worker Over Charlie Kirk Shirt
Police Investigate Leftist Who Harassed Elderly Target Worker Over Charlie Kirk Shirt
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,
In a swift turn toward justice, police have opened an investigation into Michelea Ponce, the leftist agitator caught on video berating an elderly Target employee named Jeanie for daring to wear a Charlie Kirk “FREEDOM” shirt.
The harassment, which exploded across social media, highlights the toxic entitlement of progressives who can’t stomach symbols of patriotism in everyday life.
As we highlighted, the incident unfolded in a Chico, California Target store where Jeanie calmly folded clothes while Ponce unleashed a profanity-laced rant, accusing Kirk of racism and threatening to escalate the matter to management.
Jeanie’s composed response—“He is NOT a racist—that’s your opinion, have a nice day” —stood in stark contrast to Ponce’s profanity laden meltdown, exposing the fragility of leftist “tolerance.”
Now, the Chico Police Department has confirmed they’re aware of the viral video and are actively investigating the verbal assault.
In a statement on Facebook, they noted the clip depicts “a verbal altercation” and urged anyone with direct information to contact them, signaling a formal probe into potential harassment charges.
Ponce, identified as a healthcare worker at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, has scrambled to delete her social media profiles amid the backlash.
Her employer revealed they’ve been inundated with calls from outraged citizens demanding action.
Enloe issued a response acknowledging the flood of complaints and confirming cooperation with authorities, a move that underscores how public pressure can force accountability on bullies hiding behind so called ‘progressive’ rhetoric.
This comes after Ponce’s own video—intended to shame Jeanie—backfired spectacularly, turning her into the villain online.
Records show Ponce has a prior history, including arrests, which only amplifies questions about her fitness for a role in healthcare where vulnerability is key.
Meanwhile, a GiveSendGo campaign launched for Jeanie has surged to over $135,000 in donations at time of writing, fueled by thousands eager to reward her dignity in the face of leftist aggression.
The fundraiser, organized by conservative activist Cassandra Rules, describes Jeanie as a hardworking senior who embodied grace under fire.
Donors have flooded the page with messages of solidarity, turning a moment of harassment into a triumph for free expression.
With funds climbing rapidly, Jeanie now has the means to retire comfortably or take a well-deserved break from retail chaos.
This outpouring stands as a rebuke to the left’s harassment tactics, proving that Americans won’t let patriots like Jeanie stand alone.
Incidents like this aren’t isolated. Leftists, emboldened by years of cultural dominance, routinely target ordinary folks for wrongthink—whether it’s a t-shirt, a bumper sticker, or a yard sign. But as Ponce learns the hard way, the tide is turning. With police involved and her professional life under scrutiny, this case could set a precedent against unchecked progressive bullying.
Charlie Kirk’s legacy of championing freedom lives on through supporters like Jeanie, who refuse to be silenced. As the investigation unfolds, it sends a clear message: harass patriots at your peril. Freedom isn’t just a slogan—it’s a line in the sand that more Americans are ready to defend.
Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch . Follow us on X @ModernityNews .
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/18/2025 - 17:40 Close
Thu, 18 Dec 2025 22:20:00 +0000 U.S. Freezes Korea Trade Talks After Seoul Ignores Warnings Over Big Tech Shakedown
U.S. Freezes Korea Trade Talks After Seoul Ignores Warnings Over Big Tech Shakedown
U.S. Freezes Korea Trade Talks After Seoul Ignores Warnings Over Big Tech Shakedown
One month after it looked like South Korea was backing off Big Tech with an ongoing shakedown of fines for violating arbitrary laws, the Trump administration just left the chat - canceling a key bilateral trade meeting and signaling that continued regulatory pressure on American technology firms will carry immediate consequences.
Seoul now gets to enjoy life on the outs - as the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) this week scrapped a scheduled meeting of the KORUS Joint Committee , the primary forum for managing the U.S.–South Korea free trade agreement, Politico reports. The move reflects a growing determination in Washington to ensure compliance with explicit commitments made under an updated trade framework negotiated earlier this fall.
Administration officials familiar with the decision said the meeting was canceled after it became clear that South Korea was pushing forward with digital regulations the United States views as discriminatory , despite assurances to the contrary during negotiations.
The message was unambiguous: agreements will be enforced, not debated.
Congress Reinforces The Administration’s Position
The USTR decision follows a Tuesday House Judiciary Committee hearing that underscored bipartisan congressional backing for a tougher line. Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) warned that South Korea’s regulatory posture - particularly actions by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) - had crossed a threshold from competition policy into targeted economic pressure on U.S. firms.
“Chairman Ju Byung-ki of the Korea ‘Fair Trade’ Commission – that's a wonderful title – in his own words, disparages America, takes us down, " said Issa. “He says: ‘So, why are many Americans, especially white workers in the Rust Belt in the Midwest, so angry?’ I'll tell you why they're so angry, as somebody born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio – and somebody who happened to work for the Trump administration – because in fact, they believe in free and fair trade. The fact is we now have to take on the status quo of global competitiveness.”
Lawmakers framed the issue not as a technical regulatory dispute, but as a matter of fair treatment, reciprocity, and credibility in trade relationships.
Issa criticized KFTC Chairman Ju Byung-ki for advancing enforcement policies while publicly disparaging American workers, arguing that such rhetoric and conduct reflect a deeper disregard for the principles underpinning the bilateral trade relationship.
Fitzgerald - who previously sent a warning letter to the KTFC - pointed to economic research indicating that Korea’s approach could impose hundreds of billions of dollars in losses on the U.S. economy, with higher costs ultimately borne by American consumers.
Watch the entire hearing below:
VIDEO
A Pattern Washington Has Long Tolerated - Until Now
For years, South Korea's KFTC has operated as an aggressive and unpredictable regulator whose enforcement actions fall disproportionately on foreign market leaders. American firms have been subjected to raids, intrusive investigations, and fines that critics say far exceed international norms.
Now, over 40 members of congress recently sent a letter urging the Trump administration to stop the KFTC's "criminal threats for standard business practices."
Major U.S. companies including Google, Apple, Amazon, Meta, Qualcomm, Tesla, and others, have faced repeated penalties and probes tied to app stores, digital advertising, search rankings, privacy rules, and platform operations. Korean “network usage fees” and billing mandates have further tilted the playing field, according to industry groups.
One thing is clear - the Trump administration is over it, and Seoul thinks they can wriggle out of promises they made during Trump's October visit to South Korea - during which the administration secured clear commitments under a revised U.S.–ROK trade framework . Seoul agreed to refrain from discriminatory digital regulations, ensure fair treatment of U.S. companies, and improve procedural safeguards in competition enforcement, including recognition of attorney-client privilege.
In return, Korea received tariff relief and expanded access to the U.S. market, while committing tens of billions of dollars in U.S.-approved investments and defense purchases.
From Washington’s perspective, that bargain is not optional - and recent moves by Korea’s parliament to introduce new digital platform bills - alongside signals that regulators may continue aggressive enforcement - were interpreted by U.S. officials as noncompliance, not negotiation.
The cancellation of the KORUS meeting was the response.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has repeatedly warned South Korean officials that failure to adhere to digital trade commitments could trigger a Section 301 investigation , opening the door to new tariffs and countermeasures, Politico notes further.
Administration officials say the issue is not escalation for its own sake, but enforcement of agreed terms. As one White House official put it, tariffs remain “a stick we carry” - and Seoul understands that.
The administration’s broader posture has been consistent: digital trade rules that single out American companies will be met with consequences, whether in Asia or Europe.
Strategic Alignment Comes With Expectations
The firm stance on trade coincides with deepening U.S.–Korea security cooperation, including Washington’s recent approval for South Korea to pursue nuclear-powered submarine capabilities long denied under previous administrations.
Former National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien has emphasized that economic fairness and strategic trust are inseparable. Regulatory campaigns that target U.S. firms, he warned, create a “climate of fear” inconsistent with alliance obligations - particularly as the U.S. works to counter China’s growing economic influence in the region.
The Trump administration’s decision to halt talks rather than indulge prolonged dispute marks a shift in tone, as it's now clear that Washington is no longer content to subsidize discriminatory regulation under the banner of alliance politics. Market access, tariff relief, and strategic cooperation now come with enforceable expectations.
Or as Issa put it on Tuesday, the United States is done absorbing regulatory abuse from partners while honoring its own commitments.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/18/2025 - 17:20 Close
Thu, 18 Dec 2025 22:00:00 +0000 Tether CEO Warns AI Bubble Is Bitcoin's Biggest Risk In 2026
Tether CEO Warns AI Bubble Is Bitcoin's Biggest Risk In 2026
Tether CEO Warns AI Bubble Is Bitcoin's Biggest Risk In 2026
Authored by Helen Partz via CoinTelegraph.com,
Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin, has raised concerns about how a potential AI bubble could affect Bitcoin by 2026.
Ardoino shared his outlook on Bitcoin and the broader crypto industry on Thursday during the Bitcoin Capital podcast, co-hosted by Bitfinex Securities and Blockstream.
The executive said he sees Bitcoin “still too much correlated” to capital markets, thus potentially being impacted by the AI bubble, or a theorized stock market bubble growing amid the current AI boom.
“That is the so-called AI bubble, this concern about the fact that AI companies are spending too much money in AI infrastructure and data centers and trying to build a gazillion gigawatts of power and installing GPUs,” Ardoino said.
Ardoino predicts no sharp BTC corrections as seen in 2022 anymore
In a potential scenario where AI sentiment shifts in 2026, the associated stock market turmoil in the US could affect the price of Bitcoin, Tether CEO predicted.
Apart from AI bubble-associated risks, Ardoino sees no other major risks to Bitcoin performance in 2026 due to growing adoption by pension funds and governments.
Bitcoin (BTC) price chart since 2018. Source: Bloomberg
“So I would imagine that sharp corrections of 80%, like we saw in 2022 or early 2018, might not be the case anymore,” Ardoino predicted.
Ardoino also expressed bullishness on real-world asset (RWA) tokenization , saying that tokenized securities and commodities are “going to be massive.”
“The only downside I see is like. Bitcoin is for Bitcoin, right? You don’t want 99% of Bitcoin being institutionalized,” he said.
Ardoino bearish on Europe and “just treasury companies”
While remaining bullish on Bitcoin and tokenization in 2026, Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino expressed a far less optimistic view on crypto adoption in Europe and on certain developments in digital asset treasuries in the year ahead.
“I’m very bearish on Europe,” Ardoino said in the interview, arguing that the region continues to lag behind on innovation.
VIDEO
Source: Bitfinex
“Europe will always remain the last wheel of the cart whenever we talk about innovation. Europe is trying to regulate something that it doesn’t understand yet. That is very sad,” he added.
Ardoino pointed to the implications of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) , which has intensified debate over centralized versus local oversight in the crypto sector.
Tether has been among the most prominent companies to openly refuse compliance with MiCA , a stance that has led many European crypto asset service providers to delist the Tether USDt stablecoin.
Addressing DATs, Ardoino said he’s “not very bullish” on crypto treasury companies that are “just treasury companies.”
“I think that you want a treasury company to have an amazing operational business,” Ardoino said, adding remarks about the Tether-backed Bitcoin company Twenty One :
“The aim for Twenty One is for Twenty One to be an amazing Bitcoin company that provides Bitcoin services and also has a Bitcoin treasury, a very important, big Bitcoin treasury.”
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/18/2025 - 17:00 Close
Thu, 18 Dec 2025 21:40:00 +0000 Court Axes Trevor Milton Lawsuit, Awards Attorney's Fees To CNBC And Hindenburg
Court Axes Trevor Milton Lawsuit, Awards Attorney's Fees To CNBC And Hindenburg
A New Jersey appellate court on Monday threw out Trevor Milton’s lawsuit against CNBC and short-seller Hindenburg Resear
Read more.....
Court Axes Trevor Milton Lawsuit, Awards Attorney's Fees To CNBC And Hindenburg
A New Jersey appellate court on Monday threw out Trevor Milton’s lawsuit against CNBC and short-seller Hindenburg Research, ruling that the case was time-barred and improperly framed.
In a unanimous opinion, the Appellate Division held that Milton’s claims—styled as “trade libel”—were, in substance, ordinary defamation claims subject to New Jersey’s one-year statute of limitations. Because Milton filed suit well after that deadline, the court ordered the case dismissed with prejudice and directed the trial court to award attorneys’ fees and costs to the defendants under the state’s anti-SLAPP law.
The panel rejected Milton’s attempt to recharacterize his allegations as trade libel to avoid dismissal, concluding that the complained-of statements targeted Milton personally and concerned his credibility and conduct, not any product he sold. Since the underlying claim against CNBC failed, the court also dismissed Milton’s related allegation that Hindenburg aided and abetted the network’s reporting. At oral argument, Milton’s counsel conceded that the Hindenburg claim could not survive independently. The court emphasized that New Jersey’s Uniform Public Expression Protection Act exists to deter lawsuits aimed at punishing or chilling reporting on matters of public concern.
The lawsuit stemmed from CNBC coverage and Hindenburg Research reports in 2020 that scrutinized Milton and his electric-truck startup Nikola Corp. The reporting alleged that Milton had exaggerated Nikola’s technological capabilities, including claims about proprietary battery systems and a prototype truck that was later shown to have rolled downhill rather than driven under its own power.
Milton argued that the coverage destroyed his reputation and future business prospects, asserting that CNBC knowingly broadcast falsehoods and that Hindenburg coordinated with the network to amplify them.
Both defendants countered that their reporting was accurate, newsworthy, and protected speech. Lower courts initially dismissed portions of Milton’s complaint, and the Appellate Division’s decision effectively ends the case entirely, while opening the door for CNBC and Hindenburg to recover significant legal fees. The ruling marks one of the more forceful recent applications of New Jersey’s anti-SLAPP protections to high-profile media defendants.
The decision arrives as Milton continues efforts to rebuild his business career after his dramatic fall from Nikola, which he founded in 2014 and led until his resignation in the wake of the 2020 allegations. Since then, Milton has publicly promoted new entrepreneurial ventures and investments outside Nikola, positioning himself as an innovator once again despite ongoing controversy surrounding his past claims.
After Hindenburg Research published its September 2020 report, Nikola itself publicly acknowledged that several of Trevor Milton’s prior statements were inaccurate or misleading. The company admitted that a promotional video showing a Nikola One truck “in motion” had been filmed by rolling the vehicle downhill rather than driving it under its own power, contradicting earlier impressions that the truck was fully functional.
Nikola also walked back claims that it had developed proprietary battery technology in-house, conceding that it had relied on third-party suppliers rather than owning breakthrough battery innovations as Milton had suggested. In subsequent disclosures, Nikola stated that Milton had made statements about the company’s technology and readiness that were not always supported by facts, and it emphasized that those statements were not authorized by the company—an acknowledgment that helped cement the core factual basis of the scrutiny triggered by the Hindenburg report.
Milton was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2021 on wire fraud and securities fraud charges, went to trial in 2022, and was convicted for misleading investors about Nikola’s technology and readiness. He was later spared further punishment after receiving a presidential pardon by President Trump, which wiped out the conviction.
Hindenburg Research closed up its shop at the beginning of 2025, and Milton has since moved on to his new venture, SyberJet. You can read the NJ court's opinion here.
Tyler Durden
Thu, 12/18/2025 - 16:40 Close