Left inset: Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock.com and an ally of former President Donald Trump, takes a break from being questioned by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attacks, in Washington, Friday, July 15, 2022 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite). Right: The U.S. Supreme Court is seen in Washington, D.C., July 29, 2024 (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images).
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court quietly dismissed former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne’s appeal to select his own lawyer in a defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems in 2021. The court offered no comments or explanations for its decision.
Since the lawsuit’s initiation following Joe Biden’s election victory, significant developments have unfolded. These include a substantial settlement between Dominion and Fox News, Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, and Dominion’s recent acquisition by Liberty Vote, a company led by former Republican election official Scott Leiendecker.
Just days before the news of Dominion’s sale, the company reached undisclosed settlements in ongoing defamation lawsuits involving Rudy Giuliani, a former attorney for Trump, and Sidney Powell, known for her “Kraken” lawsuit. The question now is whether Byrne might pursue a similar resolution.
In late 2020, Byrne was reportedly among those advocating within the White House and elsewhere that a global corporate conspiracy had rigged the election. He was represented by Stefanie Lambert in the Dominion case until a U.S. magistrate judge disqualified her in August 2024 due to “intentional, dangerous, and relentless misconduct.” This decision also impacted her attempt to represent Byrne in a defamation suit involving Hunter Biden in California.
Lambert attempted to appeal the disqualification, but her efforts were unsuccessful at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, culminating in the Supreme Court’s dismissal on Monday.
Lambert vowed to appeal, but the appeal flopped at the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and ended at the Supreme Court on Monday.
Brought by attorney Peter Ticktin, Byrne’s petition asked the high court to answer whether Lambert should have been disqualified for violating a protective order through a discovery breach when that order was used to “shelter evidence of crimes” that Dominion categorically denied. Byrne also petitioned the court to decide if Lambert’s ouster violated the ex-Overstock CEO’s Fifth Amendment right to due process.
The latest update in the Dominion case at the U.S. District Court for the District Columbia is that the judge on Halloween ordered up a joint status report “on or before” Nov. 14.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, wanted to know if a stay “should be lifted” so the case can proceed and, if so, what “motions remain live that the Court should rule on, and what the sequence of next events in this case should be.”
Law&Crime sought comment from Ticktin on the Supreme Court’s denial and the road ahead.
