Hilarious: Lefty Threatens to Sue Illinois Political Blog

Publius Forum ^ | 08/13/10 | Warner Todd Huston

[Mobile Vulgus]

This is pretty funny… well, not so funny if you are The Illinois Review, one of our fine political news blogs in Illinois. Apparently billionaire Nadhmi Auchi has sent a threatening letter to the blog demanding that they delete an August 9 post linking Auchi to Democrat Senate candidate Alexi "the Mob Banker" Giannoulias.

The letter issued by attorneys Carter-Ruck demands that the August 9 piece be removed due to "defamatory and untrue allegations." The letter also says that Carter-Ruck thinks that the source for the blog post was the Observer (of London) and the New York Times.

Apparently the nitwits at Carter-Ruck didn't actually READ the post in question, however. The actually source for the blog post is clearly featured at the top of the body copy. Any fool can see that the blog post came "from the IL GOP," as is noted on the actual post itself. This is a press release from the Illinois Republican Party, not an Illinois Review authored piece.

So, why is Carter-Ruck and Nadhmi Auchi threatening to sue Illinois Review when all they did was post a Party press release? Who knows?

Here is the ILL. GOP's full press release...

[Mobile Vulgus]

These leftists will do anything to try and shut us up, folks... but I dare them to try and sue me. I will tell them to take their court documents and go pound sand.

[Philo1962]

Don’t worry. You’re on solid ground. It was the same story with the Shirley Sherrod vs. Andrew Breitbart case. She was hot to trot for a lawsuit, but when the time came to find a lawyer who would take the case, suddenly she was invisible.

In both cases the prospective plaintiffs are public figures and would have to prove actual malice: that the information was published in full knowledge that it was not true, or with reckless disregard for the truth.