First Juaquin Castro outs one of his own supporters as a Trump supporter, forcing him to take protective action for his family, then Liz Warren defames Darren Wilson about what happened in Ferguson.
Neither is a public figure, and in the case of Wilson, even if he is, this was provably reckless disregard for the truth, which makes it actionable. Both of them should sue, to get the attention of the other vicious liars. I’d think they’d get plenty of donations for the legal funds.
Both of them should sue…
If memory serves, members of Congress cannot be sued for libel, slander, or defamation.
I think that only applies to statements made from the floor. It’s to allow full freedom to debate. It doesn’t apply to statements from the campaign trail.
It doesn’t apply to statements from the campaign trail.
I’m not saying you’re wrong but can you recall any example of a member of Congress being sued for libel or slander? It’s just the sort of law they would exempt themselves from. You’d think it would happen a lot more often if it was legal.
Well, a quick search gives me this, which confirms what I said. It says that a public figure can’t sue, but I don’t think that Darren Wilson is, and even if he were, a public figure can still sue for defamation done with malice (which is what Mann is attempting to do to me). In legal terms, that means a reckless disregard for the truth; either the defendant didn’t know whether the claim was true or not, or didn’t care. That would seem to the case with both Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.
As to why it’s not done more often, I can’t answer that.