Oh, utter SCHADENFREUDILICIOUSNESS ENSUES!
What a day.
I have been following the Mark Steyn v Real Mann of Science™ abomination of a defamation trial for two years here, and the twists and turns have been astonishing. A trial, mind you, that disgracefully had been twelve years in the making.

For one, it reinforced what a craven lot of cowards the National Review Online is, that they jettisoned Steyn from their own defense. That left him and Rand Simberg to tough it out against the most litigious, thin-skinned, egotistical pissant in all of Climate Cult Science™.
But that’s ancient history. The NRO eventually prevailed against Mann, who has finally given up the ghost in that quarter.
We told him to get lost. We let him know we would never take down the post, since it was First Amendment–protected speech, and a lawsuit against us would inevitably fail.
Sure enough, Mann has finally dropped any claims against us after wasting God knows how much money from his (presumed) financial backers, and Mark Steyn’s post on how Mann’s famous hockey stick graph is intellectually bogus and wrong is still right here for your reading pleasure.
Mann boasted that he would destroy us, and we are still here, alive and thriving, while he is slinking away in humiliation.
Ah, the First Amendment is so inconvenient isn’t it, Mr. Mann?
Now, it is true that Mann’s suit against us, thanks to dilatory and irresponsible judges, dragged on for an ungodly twelve years and drained us of time and resources. Mann also, shamefully, got judgments against Steyn and Rand Simberg (who posted a critique of Mann that Steyn quoted) from a friendly D.C. jury. A series of legal reverses for Mann since then, though, suggest that this purported victory will wash away under scrutiny from more objective authorities.
As gratifying as the legal outcome in this case is the fact that Mann and his ilk are now losing the climate debate. All you need to know about how that is going can be found by reading Mann’s whinging about Bill Gates and the billionaire’s shockingly sensible new stance on climate change.
Last year, a D.C. jury, after a three day trial in which the remarkable Steyn represented himself brilliantly and repeatedly exposed Michael Mann for the puffed up charltan everyone knew him to be (but were too scared to say so in public because lawsuits), inexplicably still found for Mann.
As I said at the time, it was a QBVII sort of verdict. They awarded Mann a mere $1 in compensatory damages from each man, along with $1000 in punitive damages from Simberg, but awarding an astronomical $1 million from Steyn.
It was an unbelievable body blow, and, of course, our villain was euphoric. Mann was planning on using the outsized award to pay off the judgement against him from the NRO lawsuit he’d lost. That was some $530K or there abouts which Mann was on the hook for.
The D.C. judge, however, was not so pleased with the jury award or the conduct of Real Mann™ and his legal team. They’d been a bit…um…slippery in some of their testimony during the trial.
As was his right, the judge took a good hard look at it all in the course of Mark Steyn’s appeal and knocked that million dollar sucker back, yea, mightily.
…I hope Mann hadn’t gone on a pre-award spending spree and already cut the tags off his new sneakers.
In a stunning but not unexpected ruling today, Judge Irving of the DC Superior Court has reduced the unconstitutional punitive damages jury award against Mark from one million dollars to a mere $5,000.
Our brilliant legal counsel Christopher Bartolomucci reacted to the news, “We argued for Mark that the $1 million in punitive damages awarded by the D.C. jury was grossly excessive and unconstitutional. We are pleased that the Superior Court agreed, held that the award violated the Due Process Clause, and reduced it to $5,000.”
Ain’t five grand grand?
HOLY CRAP
How was Michael Mann supposed to pay his own lawyers, less mind the NRO judgement on five grand?
He immediately appealed that, plus the fines the judge hit him and his team with for fudging their numbers.
Today, finally, after all these months?
Mann got smacked six ways to Sunday.
Oh, my goodness – I love it.
Climate Scientist Michael Mann is a data fiddler—a DC judge has announced (again).
Mann is finally reaping the hypocrisy he has sewn.
He was fined over $28,000 for presenting misleading financial data during his defamation trial, where he accused journalist and broadcaster Mark Steyn and scientist Rand Simberg of falsely accusing him of data manipulation to create the “Hockey Stick” graph.
Mann appealed, but today Judge Alfred S. Irving, Jr., denied Mann’s motion to reconsider the sanctions, labeling the incident “bad-faith trial misconduct” and ordering payment to the defendants within 30 days.
The sanctions stem from a courtroom exhibit Mann’s team showed the jury without correction, inflating his claimed lost grant funding from $112,000 to $9,713,924—a figure corrected during discovery but not disclosed to jurors.
That’s quite the data fiddle. Judge Irving dismissed Mann’s excuses, noting that he and attorneys John B. Williams and Peter J. Fontaine knew the stakes in a case resting on Mann’s claim of rock-hard integrity.
Just tears of joy for Mark’s vindication, so late, but here none the less, and the continued exposure of this cretin for what he is.
…Mann must pay $16,762.82 to Simberg and $11,404.80 to Steyn (a smaller amount because Steyn represented himself).
In short, Michael Mann won a defamation lawsuit over accusations of data fiddling, only to be found to have fiddled the data to achieve his victory.
This is so incredibly righteous.
BREAKING: The Superior Court in DC just NUKED disgraced climate scientist Michael Mann AGAIN.
Last year, Mann was sanctioned for “knowingly feeding the jury false data” in a manner of misconduct that was “extraordinary in its scope, extent, and intent.”
Today, the court doubled… pic.twitter.com/fQff5YsM7V
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 22, 2026
…Today, the court doubled down, highlighting Michael Mann’s lies:
“Plaintiff left the jury with misleading evidence… the Court simply cannot condone such bad faith litigation tactics… Thus, the Court’s ruling must stand. It is the Court’s duty to punish and deter bad faith litigation tactics.”
Now Michael Mann must pay Rand Simberg $16,762.82 and Mark Steyn $11,404.80 within the next 30 days.
I mean, seriously – why give this guy the time of day…or any government money. Not another dime.
If @MichaelEMann offers sanctionable false testimony in court, should media outlets that quote him asterisk everything he says with this?👇 https://t.co/FQde0tKTgQ
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) January 22, 2026
Melissa Howes has the court’s decision with highlights picked out on Mark’s website here.
There has to be immense relief and utter jubilation at another crack on Mann. Mark and Rand Simberg are still appealing the orginal verdict, too. God bless them, intrepid freedom of speech and truth warriors, both.
What a day.
Let’s go out with a happy musical number tonight, shall we?
I love golden oldies.
HIDE THE DECLINE
Snappy. Have a cocktail and celebrate, why don’t you? I sure will.
Slàinte mhath!
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