This may be the windfall that Lauren Boebert needs, less than two weeks before her primary. Now, she’s on the defensive, against American Muckrakers PAC, who claimed that she was a paid escort who had two abortions. The accusation being slung back at them is that they knowingly and intentionally published defamatory content about Lauren Boebert. So, she lawyered up. Here’s the new conservative cause celebre. Fox News:
In the letter, which was exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital, Boebert’s attorney Jonathan Anderson wrote that the PAC published “a series of false and defamatory statements” about the congresswoman through the Tuesday release and pointed out that while “Muckrakers has marketed itself as a ‘watchdog group,’ the truth is that Muckrakers is a political committee that exclusively opposes conservative candidates, is funded by established Democrat donor sources, and is managed by Democrat political operatives.”
“We have irrefutable evidence that each one of these statements is patently false. You knew this though,” Anderson wrote. “Muckrakers published these outlandish statements knowing they were fabricated but you likely operated under the inaccurate assumption that publishing false statements against a public figure would not create legal liability.”
“This will be a costly miscalculation for Muckrakers, Wheeler and Muckrakers’ donors,” the attorney added.
Anderson noted that proving a defamation case against a public figure has a “heightened standard of proof” and said that what “is legally, and financially, disastrous for Muckrakers is the fact that we also have evidence, including internal Muckrakers’ text and email communications, that demonstrates Muckrakers did in fact publish statements knowing those statements to be false.”
“In addition to the civil defamation claims that will be filed, Muckrakers’ actions are criminally liable. Colorado statute expressly prohibits the circulation of ‘knowingly or recklessly’ false information meant to influence an election,” Anderson wrote. “In addition, Wheeler also sent letters to the State of Utah and State of Colorado requesting an investigation. Wheeler’s letters contain multiple knowingly false statements.”
The bottom line here is that now Boebert is getting publicity she couldn’t buy for a million bucks and right when she needs it. I understand the muckraking group’s desire to be rid of her. Nobody despises Lauren Boebert more than I do. She is a pox on my beautiful home state, Colorado.
Maybe this will bolster her through the primary. Or, maybe since now a spotlight is on the primary, maybe her opponent can use it to his advantage. Who knows? We’ll find out on the 28th.
Truth is an absolute defense – but she’d have to *tell the truth*.
Discovery in a lawsuit would be a two-way process so I’m not sure how hard Bobblehead and her lawyers will want to push this. This set of allegations is defamatory and as you’ve noted utter bullshit that’s been debunked so I can’t fault her for being outraged. Like you my outrage is directed towards the IDIOTS who didn’t do some serious vetting of what they through out there. They gave someone on political life support a miracle cure. Back to my point though, I anticipate she will get a very nice settlement check. If Muckraker and it’s funders have any sense at all they will settle this quickly and pony up some serious cash to do so AND issue a very public apology. And fire people. Publicly.
I suspect muckrakers have enough to avoid a defamation rap. Trouble is nothing they allege, excepting the padding her miles stuff, is illegal. Unlike Crawford she didn’t get caught with a live boy so her voters likely won’t give a rip.