Judge’s Report Signals Collapse of “Fed Two” Case

LUTHMANN NOTE: Let me be crystal clear. You do not get to weaponize the Gainesville, Florida, federal court because your feelings are hurt. You do not get to mock a Jewish lawyer with grotesque slurs and then hide behind livestream theatrics. You don’t get to use homophobic slurs or abuse your kids. You do not sue an 80-year-old veteran while his wife is dying and call yourself righteous. A federal magistrate judge just recommended dismissal. That’s not a “technicality.” That’s a legal body slam. This case smells like lawfare. It reads like ego. And it collapses like a house of cards. You already asked for a trial by combat; I filed it. If you want a war of facts, I’m already there. The truth doesn’t blink. This piece is “YouTube Bully Jeremy Hales Exposed.”

By Richard Luthmann

(GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA) – Jeremy Hales built a YouTube empire on storage-unit treasure hunts – “What The Hale$” – but somewhere along the line, he traded the lockers for lawsuits. If you criticize Hales, he doesn’t clap back with evidence or debate. Nope, he sues you.

Neighbors complain about noise? He sues them.

Former fans voice dissent? Sue.

A state prosecutor declines to charge his enemies? You guessed it – he even sued a prosecutor.

But the end of his reign of terror is in sight.

YouTube Bully Jeremy Hales Uses Lawsuits as Weapons in War on Critics

Hales is using the U.S. federal court as his personal weapon, filing sprawling complaints against an “ecosystem” of critics who dared speak against him.

The defendants’ list reads like a ragtag Justice League of Hales-Haters: John Cook and Michelle Preston (his Florida neighbors), Lisa Lee (a one-time moderator he turned on), Dave Helm, Bruce Matzkin (a Massachusetts attorney who tried to help the neighbors), Ray “Bonecrusher” (an 80-year-old veteran YouTuber), “Supa Dave” Teschendorf (Milltown’s Best),  Yours Truly – and others.

Their alleged sin? Expressing opinions about Hales’s antics – exercising free speech, which is absolutely their right.

In Hales’s delusion, these folks formed a conspiracy to destroy him, but in reality, they “share one thing in common – they have said negative things about [him] on social media.”

That’s it.

Hales took mean comments and spun them as a federal case. Well, the federal court wasn’t amused. Magistrate Judge Zachary Bolitho issued a 45-page Report & Recommendation that demolishes Hales’s case like a sledgehammer. The judge methodically picked apart each claim – from trademark to conspiracy – and recommended the core claims be dismissed with prejudice.

In plain English, that means “case over, don’t bring this garbage here again.”

Florida’s anti-SLAPP law – designed to punish lawsuit bullies who try to chill free speech – is looming large now. In fact, the judge suggested Hales may have to pay the defendants’ legal fees because the lawsuit is so frivolous.

That’s the price of using courts to settle ego trips.

We always said this case was a doomed SLAPP, a baseless attempt to silence critics – and now a federal magistrate judge agrees. Hales’s legal “master plan” just hit the wall, and his war on free speech is crumbling under the Constitution.

YouTube Bully Jeremy Hales: Bias, Bigotry, and No Mercy for “Bonecrusher”

Hales doesn’t just abuse the courts; he sinks even lower. How low? Try anti-Semitic slurs. The Jewish attorney Bruce Matzkin bore the brunt of Hales’s vile taunts. In a recorded deposition, Hales mocked Matzkin’s nose and called him “Deuce Foreskin,” a grotesque play on words targeting Jewish circumcision.

It’s a disgusting, bigoted, anti-Semitic thing – par for the course with Jeremy Hales, who refused to apologize, even after Rabbi Jacob Bellinsky publicly condemned him. Instead, he doubled down.

My podcast partner, Chicago-based journalist Michael Volpe, didn’t mince words: “Jeremy Hales hates Jews… He calls a Jewish lawyer ‘Deuce Foreskin’ and then pretends it’s not anti-Semitic? Come on.”

When confronted, Hales couldn’t even say “I don’t hate Jews” – a telling omission. This is who he is: a man so arrogant and biased that he’d rather normalize hate than show decency. Little wonder Rabbi Bellinsky warned that Hales’s echo chamber is normalizing anti-Semitism for a new generation.

His children also hate Hales. The Ohio Court suspended all contact between Jeremy Hales and his daughter.

As if anti-Jewish bigotry weren’t enough, Hales’s cruelty knows no bounds. He called John Cook a “gay fag—,” throwing around homophobic slurs.

Let’s talk about Ray “Bonecrusher.” Ray is a Vietnam-era vet pushing 80, a humble content creator who Hales decided to sue as part of his grand “Fed 2” case. At the time, Ray’s beloved wife was terminally ill, dying. Did Hales show an ounce of humanity?

Not a bit.

He sued Ray anyway, and when Ray’s wife lay on her deathbed (and later passed away), Hales refused to pause or drop the lawsuit. Not even a temporary reprieve for a grieving old man.

Nothing.

“He wouldn’t suspend the lawsuit, wouldn’t show him any quarter,” I explained, still aghast at the mercilessness.

Mike Hennessey’s voice cracked with anger, recalling it: “I cried my eyes out… Ray was on the stream and [Hales] was hitting him so hard,” Mike said. “I told Hales, you wanna pick on somebody? Pick on me, man. Don’t pick on him.”

That’s right – Mike literally volunteered as tribute to get Hales to stop tormenting an elderly man in pain.

But Hales didn’t stop.

This is beyond lawsuits; it’s sadism. He wielded litigation like a cudgel to bludgeon a dying woman’s husband. I’ll say it now as I said it on the podcast: Jeremy Hales is headed for hell if he doesn’t change his ways – especially after what he did to Ray. Using the courts to compound a veteran’s heartbreak is evil. Pure and simple.

It’s why I call Hales a bully and a punk – the kind of punk who kicks a man when he’s down and laughs about it.

Well, guess what? We’re not laughing. We’re fighting back.

Rebirth of the “Bearded” Avenger: Hennessey’s Comeback Story

If Hales expected his targets to roll over, he miscalculated. People like Michael Hennessey are exactly the wrong people to bully. Mike’s story is one of personal resurrection – and it puts any YouTube drama into perspective. This guy hit rock bottom in life. Then he found the basement.

“I never knew there was a basement in rock bottom, but there is,” Mike told me. “I hit that basement, but I crawled out of it.”

Fifteen years ago, he was struggling with addiction and trauma, topping out at 353 pounds on a 53-inch waist. A near-fatal motorcycle accident jolted him onto a new path. He got clean and sober, devoted himself to helping others, and even ran a sober living house in Connecticut. But he still had demons to conquer: namely, his own body.

So what did Mike do?

He went off-grid into the woods for 14 months like a self-made Rocky Balboa training montage. He lived in a riverside camp with his two dogs through New England winters, chopping wood and shedding his former self.

By the time he emerged, he was down to 130 pounds – a 223-pound weight loss – and spiritually reborn.

“I was cutting 200-foot trees… I walked out of those woods, I almost died, man,” Mike recalled matter-of-factly.

But he didn’t die. He came out forged by fire, healthy, sober, and hungry for purpose.

That purpose found him when Hales’s cult-like followers started harassing and doxxing him for daring to criticize their idol. Imagine: you survive the wilderness and your own vices, only to have an internet mob come after you. They even sent Mike photos of the house he lost – rubbing salt in old wounds.

But Mike Hennessey is not so easily broken. Instead of folding, he linked up with fellow critics – John, Michelle, Lisa, Ray, and me – and formed a support network.

“Chaos is cash,” Mike likes to say, meaning Hales’s manufactured chaos does bring people together, just not in the way Hales intends. We “anti-Hales” folks found unity in pushing back against his bullying.

This very podcast episode was Mike’s birthday gift and coming-out party as a freedom fighter. Turning 59 (and in the best shape of his life), he sat beside me on air to celebrate survival and stick it to the man causing so much misery.

I led our viewers in a spirited Happy Birthday song for Mike, but the real present was giving him a platform to speak truth to power. Hales tried to silence this man with intimidation; instead, he amplified Mike’s resolve.

“You guys are like my other family,” Mike told us during the show, voice trembling with gratitude.

Here’s a guy who lost everything, rebuilt himself from ashes, and now stands fearless against a YouTube tyrant. If Hales thought he could break Michael Hennessey, he severely underestimated the heart and grit of this bearded warrior. Mike is living proof that you can’t sue away someone’s spirit.

YouTube Bully Jeremy Hales Runs From Trial by Combat: Turning a Legal Farce into Theatrical Justice

By now, you’re probably thinking this saga can’t get any crazier. Strap in – it does. See, I’m not just a journalist; I’m a former attorney known in headlines from the New York Post. Back in 2015, when Game of Thrones was all the rage, I famously invoked the medieval Trial By Combat in a real court filing (half tongue-in-cheek, half serious – I was making a legal point with a side of theater). That stunt branded me as a flamboyant maverick in the legal world.

Fast forward to October 2025: Jeremy Hales apparently thought I wouldn’t call his bluff. On a livestream, he challenged me – yes, challenged me – to resolve all our disputes with trial by combat.

“Put it in the paperwork,” he sneered, “and we’ll do it.”

Well, be careful what you wish for, pal. I took that challenge and ran with it. I filed an official motion putting Hales’s offer on the record and accepted the duel then and there. Suddenly, this comic-book feud got very real in the eyes of the court.

Why?

Because the moment Hales agreed to a fight, we arguably formed an alternative dispute resolution agreement – essentially an arbitration pact by way of duel. And under the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925, such an agreement could oust the court’s jurisdiction over our squabble.

In other words, Judge Bolitho’s big dismissal recommendation doesn’t even include me, because my trial by combat clause is a live issue. Hales, perhaps not expecting I’d actually strap on the proverbial armor, is now cornered: he either backs down from his own dare or faces me in a sanctioned showdown.

So what would “trial by combat” look like in 2026? Don’t worry, we’re not talking about death on some field of honor. Think more like a charity boxing match or a WWE-style wrestling event – the venue TBD (I suggested a nice arena in New Port Richey, Florida – neutral ground with plenty of parking).

On the podcast, we had a ball fantasizing about the spectacle: a cage match with an otter on a pole? Sure. Michael Hennessey as special guest referee and John Cook ringing the bell?

Why not!

We joked about me training in icy Siberia like Rocky IV, with Mike as my grizzled coach. It was laughter through rage – using humor to underscore how absurd Hales’s behavior is. But make no mistake: the trial by combat challenge is also deadly serious in its symbolism. It strips Hales’s lawsuit down to what it really is – a petty grudge match.

I’ve effectively said, “Let’s cut the legal BS and settle this man-to-man.”

And wouldn’t you know, Hales’s bravado faded real quick. Bullies love picking fights until someone picks one with them. By formalizing his challenge, I backed Hales into a corner. Now the idea of trial by combat sits on the docket, a reminder that this whole case was always more theater than law.

It may yet be dismissed on procedural grounds, but I’ve made my point: Hales’s quest for domination will be met on any field he chooses, even a literal battlefield.

Legally, it’s exposed him as unserious; theatrically, it’s given his audience a taste of the ridicule and reckoning to come. When this is over, Jeremy Hales won’t have his vindication – but he might get the public comeuppance he so richly deserves, whether in a court of law or a boxing ring.

YouTube Bully Jeremy Hales’s Cult: An Influencer’s Echo Chamber Exposed

What drives a man like Hales to such extremes? Power, attention – and a cult-like following that eggs him on. As a former preacher-turned-YouTuber, Hales knows how to play the charismatic leader. He’s effectively fashioned himself as a cult leader of an online flock.

On the podcast, I asked Mike point-blank: Is Jeremy’s group basically a cult?

“Um, yeah. I do actually,” Mike answered without hesitation. “With the televangelist stuff… that’s a cult. And yeah, [Hales’s] is a cult. I think it’s a cult, to be honest.”

Mike would know – he’s studied those TV preachers for years, and Hales ticks the boxes: a self-styled prophet who demands absolute loyalty and money from his flock, brooks no dissent, and demonizes outsiders.

I see it the same way. Hales uses the tricks he learned as a minister, which can be positive when used for good but can also be twisted for evil. He’s filling a void for certain people.

Who are they?

Often older folks (“age 45 and up” as I observed) who are lonely or lack community. Hales swoops in with his big personality and says, “Follow me, I’ll give you purpose (just never question me).” It’s classic cult grooming. I told Mike I’m deeply concerned for some of these followers.

“It never ends well for the cult,” I warned – and I meant it.

We’ve all seen how cults crash and burn, usually hurting the members most. Hales’s devotees send him money, parrot his talking points, attack his enemies online – all to stay in the good graces of the Great Leader of What The Hale$. It’s sad and a little scary.

Let’s name this echo chamber of enablers and sycophants. There’s Megan Fox, a once-respected journalist who “abandoned journalistic integrity in favor of cult-like loyalty to Hales,” as I noted in one investigation. Fox now spends her days defending Hales and smearing his critics – trading her credibility for YouTube clout.

Riding shotgun is Matthew “TUG” Lewis, a.k.a. ThatUmbrellaGuy, a YouTube commentator who gleefully amplifies Hales’s narrative. These two went on-air after the judge’s recommendation and acted shocked and confused at the suggestion of dismissal – even admitting they didn’t understand the laws Hales sued under. (Pro tip: if you don’t know what the Lanham Act is, maybe don’t fanboy a Lanham Act lawsuit.)

But ignorance is part of the act. As Volpe quipped, “Fox used to be a serious journalist. Now she’s just a Hales cultist.”

Then we have characters like “ShizzyWhiznut”, a loudmouth propagandist whose legal takes are so idiotic they’ve become a running joke.

And Jay “Hip” (short for Hipster, we think), another ally who rallies the Facebook troops with disinformation and harassment campaigns.

This motley crew forms Hales’s “small, rabid group of YouTube enablers” – effectively his cult lieutenants. They spin his narrative, attack any dissenters, and never question their leader. If one of them ever grows a conscience and leaves, Hales will turn on them viciously (we’ve seen it happen; ex-friends become targets).

As Volpe observed, “Hales is running this like a mob operation… you’re either with him 100%, or he’ll come after you next.”

But here’s the flipside: Hales’s cult is cracking. The very existence of our broadcast – with its candid truths and mounting evidence – is sunlight disinfecting his darkness. Some of his followers must be questioning why their leader spews hate or why his grand lawsuit just collapsed. The “Hales cult” thrives on disinformation and isolation, but we’re breaking that spell by exposing facts.

And notably, multiple Jewish organizations and voices have started pushing back on his hate – a community not so easily gaslit. The cult leader himself is on the defensive, reduced to making delusional vows that this failed lawsuit was “just the beginning” and that we “will have [him] in [our] lives for the rest of [our] pathetic lives.”

That’s a direct quote from Hales’s recent meltdown. It’s the sound of a wannabe tyrant stamping his feet as his power erodes.

Let him threaten; we’re not afraid. We have truth, law, and the First Amendment on our side. Jeremy Hales wanted a war – well, he got one. And in the process, he exposed himself as a grifter, a bully, and an anti-Semite with a fake “cult” of followers.

In the end, this isn’t just gossip about YouTube drama. It’s a free speech fight and a morality play. It’s about whether a public figure can weaponize the courts to silence truth-tellers and get away with it. It’s about shining a light on online hate and calling it by its name. It’s about standing up for the little guys – the retirees, the former fans, the community members – who got dragged into a nightmare for speaking their minds.

I’m proud to stand with people like Mike, John, Michelle, Lisa, Super Dave, and Ray. We may have been strangers once, but Hales’s campaign of harassment forged us into an allied front. We’re not going anywhere, Jeremy. You can’t sue us into silence, and you sure as hell can’t scare us.

Because when bullies like you push, guys like us push back – harder. Sometimes that pushback comes in court, sometimes in the court of public opinion, and hey, sometimes even in a trial by combat (paperwork pending!).

However this saga ends, one thing is certain: Jeremy Hales’s cult of chaos is cracking, and the truth will outlast the lies. We’ll keep exposing his disinformation, one bombastic broadcast at a time, until justice – or maybe an old-fashioned duel – finally puts this clown show to rest.