Free Republic

When he decided in 2016 to create a club for his supporters, Gavin McInnes says he had in mind something fun — like the “Loyal Order of Water Buffalo” lodge to which Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble belonged in the old cartoon series. A humorist-turned-political commentator whose YouTube channel has nearly 270,000 subscribers, McInnes certainly didn’t intend the Proud Boys to be a “hate group,” but that’s what the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled them, and a federal lawsuit McInnes filed this week accuses the Alabama-based SPLC of “tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, defamation, and false light invasion of...

On Friday's Real Time show on HBO, host Bill Maher tore into Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann, deriding him as a "p**ck" and a "smirkface" who has a "s***-eating grin." He ended up making a pedophilia joke as he cracked that he doesn't know "what Catholic priests see in these kids." After beginning his opening monlogue by making his latest attacks on President Donald Trump, he then segued to the controversy around video of Sandmann and Native American activist Nathan Phillips standing face to face amid a group of protesters while Phillips beat a drum. In spite of...

Full Title: Judge dismisses libel suit by conservative video maker relating to telephone charade at Mary Landrieu's officeWASHINGTON -- A New Jersey federal judge has dismissed a libel case filed by a conservative video maker James O'Keefe, who disputed a news account of his misdemeanor conviction for trying to gain access to then Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office in 2010. New Jersey Federal Judge Claire Cecchi ruled last week that the coverage by Main Justice, which covers the Department of Justice, and the online publication's founder, Mary Jacoby, was protected under the First Amendment because "as a whole," it...

Flyers claiming to be from a non-existent Tea Party in Medina, Ohio were placed in mailboxes on Monday urging Ohio voters to defeat "the n***er" in the White House to "help keep our country strong and white." The flyers, obtained by Breitbart News, were found in mailboxes along Rt. 252 in Medina County, Ohio. It is against federal law to place such flyers into mailboxes. Amy Brighton, Co-founder and Co-coordinator of Medina Tea Party Patriots, told Breitbart News that these "disgusting" flyers were a "desperate attempt to smear the millions of Americans involved in and supportive of the tea party...

This headline at ABC News is misleading: Sarah Palin Threatens to Sue ‘Rogue’ Book Publisher It is misleading, because there is no “threat” in the letter. Rather, as Governor Palin’s lawyer John Tiemessen clearly states, the legal prerequisite for a defamation suit under Alaska law: “[S]ince both your company, and the author, clearly knew the statements were false, admitted they had no basis in fact or reality, but decided to publish in order to harm Governor Palin’s family, you and Mr. McGinniss have defamed the Palins. This letter shall serve as written notice . . . that a claim may...

Sarah Palin’s family attorney John Tiemessen has written a letter to Maya Mavjee, the publisher of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, that Palin may sue her, the company, and the book’s author Joe McGinniss “for knowingly publishing false statements” in his book released last week, “The Rogue,” ABC News has learned.READ THE ENTIRE LETTER HEREThe book was widely panned by critics for using unnamed sources to criticize Palin and her family. Tiemessen cites an email they have access to in which McGinniss writes that attorneys from Crown Publishing told him “nothing I can cite other than my...

“The final work that was published contains most of the stories that Mr. McGinniss complains were nothing more than ‘tawdry gossip’ that amounted to the wishful fantasies of disturbed individuals,” Tiemessen writes. “Since both your company, and the author, clearly knew the statements were false, admitted they had no basis in fact or reality, but decided to publish in order to harm Governor Palin’s family, you and Mr. McGinniss have defamed the Palins.”

Attorneys representing former Alaska governor Sarah Palin have written to Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, serving notice of possible litigation for defamation in connection with Joe McGinniss’s recent anti-Palin biography, and warning the company not to delete or destroy relevant documents. The letter (see below) reads, in part: Enclosed is an e-mail by your author Joe McGinniss. In this e-mail, Mr. McGinniss admits that your own lawyers instructed him that “nothing I can cite other than my own reporting rises above the level of tawdry gossip.”….Indeed, Mr. McGinniss admits that the allegations are false unless he can find...

PARIS -- Lance Armstrong dropped defamation lawsuits in France after winning three legal battles elsewhere over doping accusations. Donald Manasse and Christian Charriere-Bournazel, Armstrong's lawyers in France, said Thursday the seven-time Tour de France champion had instructed them to "dismiss all pending actions." That means a trial set to start in October against the authors of the book "LA Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong" will not proceed. The book accused Armstrong of using banned substances, a claim he has always denied. "I think we're 10-0 in lawsuits right now," Armstrong said Thursday. "My life is not about that anymore....