$800K Defamation Damages in "Israeli Spy" Allegations Against Consultant Involved in Examining Hunter Biden's Laptop
A jury awarded $800,000 in damages to Yaacov Apelbaum and his company XRVision in a defamation case against journalist Jordan Arthur Bloom, who claimed Apelbaum was an Israeli spy involved in shaping the Hunter Biden laptop narrative. The court found the statements to be defamatory per se and supported allegations of actual malice due to Bloom's failure to investigate or contact the plaintiffs before publishing. The case centered on two articles published on Substack and widely shared on social media, with each plaintiff receiving $150,000 in total damages across two defamatory statements.
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Free Speech $800K Defamation Damages in "Israeli Spy" Allegations Against Consultant Involved in Examining Hunter Biden's Laptop Eugene Volokh | 5.1.2026 8:01 AM See Monday's jury verdict, which awards $75K in compensatory damages plus $125K in punitive damages for each of two statements, and for each of two plaintiffs (Yaacov Apelbaum and his company XRVision). Here's an excerpt of the July decision allowing the case to go forward (Apelbaum v. Bloom): Yaacov Apelbaum is the founder of XRVision, Ltd., a cybersecurity and analytics company.
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