It’s been quite a week so far in American defamation litigation.
On Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel filed a lawsuit against The Atlantic and reporter Sarah Fitzpatrick, deeming as defamatory a report in which she wrote that Patel “is deeply concerned that his job is in jeopardy” and “has good reasons to think so — including some having to do with what witnesses described to me as bouts of excessive drinking.” The suit called the report a “sweeping, malicious, and defamatory hit piece.”
On Tuesday, Patel lost a suit he brought against a former MSNBC analyst who said on “Morning Joe” last year that the FBI director was “visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor of the Hoover building.” Also on Tuesday, a former Capitol Police officer sued Blaze Media and two reporters over what she said was the false accusation that she was the Jan. 5 pipe bomb planter.
And now, a Florida judge has rejected a suit brought by Laura Loomer against comedian Bill Maher and HBO, the home of his “Real Time with Bill Maher” show.
Loomer was described in Wednesday’s ruling as a “conservative investigative journalist” who mounted two failed congressional bids and, by her own admission, developed a reputation as one of the most controversial figures in American politics, being “pro-white nationalism” and a “proud Islamophobe.”
Her suit stemmed from a September 2024 episode of Maher’s show in which he said, “I think maybe Laura Loomer’s in an arranged relationship to affect the election because she’s very close to [Donald] Trump. She’s 31, looks like his type. We did an editorial here a few years ago … it was basically, who’s Trump f[—]ing? Because I said, you know, it’s not nobody. He’s been a dog for too long, and it’s not Melania. I think we may have our answer this week. I think it might be Laura Loomer.”
Loomer argued that Maher’s statement “falsely and maliciously” accused her of having “committed adultery” with President Donald Trump.
In his ruling against her, U.S. District Judge James Moody recounted that the episode in question came at a time when Loomer’s “frequent presence at President Trump’s side led to extensive chattering about the nature of their relationship,” and that “Twitter was abuzz with speculation that Plaintiff and President Trump might be in a relationship.”
The Clinton-appointed judge wrote, “A reasonable Real Time viewer would have understood Maher was making a joke, and not a statement of fact about Plaintiff and President Trump.”
Moody summed up the matter by writing that the statement in question “was made by a comedian, Maher, about a public figure, Loomer, during a time when the environment was rife with jokes and speculation about Loomer’s relationship with President Trump.”
Writing on social media, Loomer called the decision “both factually and legally wrong” and said that it should be “reversed on appeal either at the Eleventh Circuit and at the Supreme Court if necessary.” The staunch Trump supporter also called the decision “an attack on women and the truth.”
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