I’ve received the following e-mail from an attorney representing Maria Chappelle-Nadal:
I represent Maria Chappelle-Nadal. The purpose of this message is to address
various statements you have published about my client. You have
repeatedly slandered and
libeled her by calling her a liar and falsely claiming that she misstated
facts
about financial support you have received from Mr. Sinquefield. All of
Ms. Chappelle-Nadal’s statements are verifiable facts; yours are
intentional lies designed to tarnish her reputation.Neither Ms. Chappelle-Nadal nor I wish to pursue civil litigation against
you. We
will not do so if you immediately issue retractions of your statements of
Facebook, showmeprogress.com and all other mediums you have used to
unlawfully assault her reputation. Your retractions must specifically
state that my client did not lie about the
contributions you have received.If you comply with this request by 9:00am on 8/1/2010, we will refrain
from filing suit
against you on 8/2/2010.Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter. Please do not
hesitate to
contact me with any questions or concerns.
I responded with the following e-mail:
Can you specifically cite which claims that I have made that you believe to be false, and can you please provide evidence to substantiate those claims? As I’ve previously stated, I would gladly retract any statements which are proven to be false, but I will not retract a statement without compelling evidence that it is false.
UPDATE: ArchPundit gets involved on Blog Saint Louis.
[…]So Maria and her lawyer, please add me to the any lawsuit. If you notice the about page, my address is there if you wish to serve me.
Eric is right here-Maria is blatantly lying by modifying a quote from the St. Louis American. There’s simply no question there. If she wants a retraction, she needs to provide the evidence that Sinquefeld did pay for a pro-Adams flyer.So far, she has refused to do any such thing. If she can provide the evidence, she also can request the American make a correction, but that does not absolve her of passing along a fake quote regardless. Of course, no evidence of such a flyer exists and it should be available in the Missouri campaign finance reports.
Oh, one thing Maria-I will seek to recover all legal costs from you and your attorney and seek full penalties for spurious litigation if you do try it. Cheers!
UPDATE 2: Blue Girl offers her support on They Gave Us A Republic in a way that only Blue Girl can.
received? Am I missing something? Did you every say you had received contributions? Is this some kind of weird attorney talk? Does he think you are the other candidate? What’s going on?
If they did, they should of known that it is not slander if it is in print, it’s libel.
have to prove that you have damaged her in a way that would affect her earnings, reputation, etc. Showmeprogress, though I love you guys, isn’t Daily Kos in volume or popularity. Actually it seems like they are causing more damage to themselves by threatening legal action.
I just hate seeing progressive eat their own. Really sad. 🙁
Assholes and liars. I expect it of republicans – I’ll bring the gas and matches my damn self to torch a lying asshole of a Democrat. I expect better of them – that’s why I am one.
And no realm attorney, except maybe a probate lawyer who has never set foot inside a courtroom would use “slander” and “libel” in one sentence…exhibiting that sort of basic ignorance and foregoing the standard “cease and desist” language was like catnip…a stupid lying politician with a stupider lawyer? This could be the most fun I’ve had with my clothes on…well….ever.
I laughed so hard, I almost needed to be resuscitated.
Let’s just say that the sharks I associate with WILL need resuscitated if he gets froggy in the morning and decides to go ahead and jump.
I would remind him, however, should he take that leap – and he kinda has to now that we have all tuned up the chorus and called his client a liar in three-part harmony – that not all squirrels can fly.
“actual malice for the purpose of harming [her] reputation.” An award of damages requires proof of damages incurred incurred as a result of false and malicious comments. The bar for libel is set much lower for private person. All that a private person need to prove is that the comments in question were made negligently and not with actual malice. As I recall slander is even harder to prove.