Conservative firm battles defamation lawsuit from Army official who allegedly excused Charlie Kirk’s murder

EXCLUSIVE — A new conservative law firm told the Washington Examiner it is taking on its first case of “lawfare” for a client accused of defamation in Washington, D.C.Junel Jeffrey, who has served in U.S. military public affairs roles, is suing retired Army Major Charles Spears for criticizing her alleged September 2025 social media post suggesting Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk deserved his murder, court records show. The Oversight Project is now representing Spears as its first-ever client, seeking to become a shelter for “conservatives targeted for exercising their constitutional rights,” the firm told the Washington Examiner.“This is a textbook example of weaponized Lawfare and fighting against it is why the new Oversight Project Law Firm was formed,” said Jeff Clark, the group’s vice president for litigation. Jeffrey did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.Spears attacked Jeffrey on X and in an opinion article for RedState in September 2025 after someone posted a screenshot of what appeared to be Jeffrey reacting to Kirk’s murder in Utah.“Sometimes we reap what we sow,” said the post from an account showing Jeffrey’s name and face. “That’s all.” Spears’s writings then tied Jeffrey to what he called an epidemic of “extremism” in the U.S. military.“We failed to defeat Al Qaeda over the course of two decades,” his RedState article said. “Worse still, we allowed the American left wing to import that foreign terrorist association’s agenda, tactics, and desired end state: violent destruction of those marked as ‘infidels.’ Then we gave these neo-Qaeda agents safe harbor in the ranks of our military.”Jeffrey did not deny posting about Kirk but claimed she is no longer a public figure, a status that gives someone less legal protection from libel. However, her LinkedIn profile says she has been a director at the Army Office of the Chief of Public Affairs since December 2023, and she publicly attended an October 2025 event in a uniform as “Colonel Junel Jeffrey.” Her lawsuit also boasted of her “ongoing exemplary service in defense of the United States.”Representing herself in local court, she sued Spears for more than $50 million on Sept. 10 — the one-year anniversary of Kirk’s assassination. She claimed to have suffered reputational harm and emotional distress from Spears’s “false assertions.”“In keeping with military regulatory guidance within the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Plaintiff has never advocated the overthrow of the US government, recruited, organized, or lead an extremist group, raised or given material support to such groups, demonstrated or rallied in support of extremist agendas, displayed extremist symbols, flags, tattoos, or bumper stickers, or liked or shared or posted extremist content online with the intent to promote it,” she wrote.New legal watchdog steps in Oversight Project attorneys filed a notice of removal on Saturday, allowing them to move Spears’s defamation case to federal court in D.C., documents show.The legal group spun off from the conservative Heritage Foundation in 2025 under activist Mike Howell. It later recruited Clark, a President Donald Trump ally formerly prosecuted by Georgia over 2020 election fraud claims. The state dropped its charges in 2025, but Clark is still fighting the D.C. Bar’s recommendation to have him disbarred over similar disputes.“It is inherently appalling, disgraceful, and deeply disturbing that a senior commissioned officer in the United States Armed Forces — sworn to uphold the Constitution — would seemingly react to the cold-blooded assassination of a prominent American conservative with glee and cold satisfaction,” Clark said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “To be gladdened by the violent death of a fellow American exercising his First Amendment rights is a profound moral failure that strikes at the fundamental ethical standards of our military and civil society.”“Colonel Jeffrey’s $40+ million defamation suit against our client Major Spears adds new meaning to the saying ‘the best defense is a good offense,’ but it’s Colonel Jeffrey who should be in trouble and legal jeopardy [for] what she said about a beloved young figure and father many Americans looked up to, not Major Spears,” Clark said.CANDACE OWENS FACES SECOND DEFAMATION CASE OVER CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION THEORIESJeffrey paired her September lawsuit with a request for a restraining order, alleging Spears’s criticism made her subject to “threatening messages” from the veteran’s online followers.“They are MAGA people, very unhinged,” she told the local court. “I live alone and don’t have anyone to protect me from them.”