Right-wing media personality and former FBI deputy director Dan Bongino did not slander the CEO of a conservative social media network in a livestream because Bongino’s comments were part of a “hyperbolic rant” and were therefore opinions incapable of being false, the Nevada Supreme Court decided earlier this month.

The long-simmering free speech dispute between Bongino, who at the time was a popular radio host, and John Matze, a co-founder and the former CEO of Parler, goes back to 2021, not long after Parler was deplatformed in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack of the U.S. Capitol. Matze was then fired from the formerly Henderson-based company.

Bongino, who held a minority ownership stake in Parler, took to Facebook Live to counter Matze’s narrative about his firing as reported in an article posted to the Fox Business website.

“With Bongino’s role as an insider at Parler, Matze asserts that there is an implication of knowledge of underlying facts, rather than opinion,” a three-judge panel of state supreme court justices wrote in a May 7 order. “But a statement about whether a former employee made decisions that were bad or terrible also constitutes an unverifiable opinion. Courts that have considered similar vague statements have concluded they were non-verifiable and therefore held them to be opinions as a matter of law.”

The panel heard oral arguments on the appeal in December.

Matze said Bongino accused him of impropriety, misconduct and lying. In a still-active wrongful termination suit in Clark County district court, Matze alleges that the deplatforming led to his dismissal by Republican megadonor Rebekah Mercer, another co-founder who funded Parler during its launch. As part of that suit, he alleged that Bongino defamed him in the livestream as part of a conspiracy with others associated with Parler.

Court documents quote Bongino as saying on his stream, “let me be crystal clear on this. He makes two points, that ‘Oh, I was a big advocate for free speech, it was my vision,’ and ‘I was a big advocate for product stability’… That is not true. That is false.”

Bongino and other defendants moved for dismissal under Nevada’s anti-SLAPP — or Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation — law. The district court denied the motion, and they appealed to the state high court in May 2023.

“We conclude that Bongino’s video expressions tend to show a political commentator on a hyperbolic rant. Although Bongino purported to provide viewers with ‘the real story’ and ‘correct the record’ regarding Matze’s termination, the gist of Bongino’s statements as a whole is that he believed that himself and others at Parler were more committed to protecting free speech and product stability on the platform than Matze. These statements, constituting most of Bongino’s rant, are plainly unverifiable opinions.”

Parler, which Matze co-founded in 2018, had pitched itself as a place for free expression. It was held up as an alternative to more moderated social media options such as Facebook and X, then known as Twitter, and became a hotbed of far-right activists and supporters of President Donald Trump.

It went dark after the Capitol attack by pro-Trump extremists who sought to prevent Congress from certifying his 2020 loss to Joe Biden in the presidential race, Trump’s first attempt at a second term. Apple and Google removed Parler from their app stores and Amazon Web Services declined to host the site. They said it allowed posts that incited the violence.

The Nevada Supreme Court only considered the decision on the anti-SLAPP motion. The underlying wrongful termination lawsuit remains active in district court.

Parler has since relaunched under new ownership.

Bongino, a former New York police officer and U.S. Secret Service agent and longtime commentator, served for about 10 months as the deputy director of the FBI during the current Trump administration. He resigned in January. He again hosts a podcast.

Matze was represented by Pisanelli Bice. The firm also represents the Sun.