Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
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David Wheeler previously made allegations about Rep. Lauren Boebert’s personal life.Now he’s suing her for defamation, alleging she defamed and disparaged him on Fox News.Boebert has not responded to the activist’s suit or Insider’s request for comment.
An activist has sued Rep. Lauren Boebert for defamation, alleging she lied about him and his nonprofit on Fox News and in other media outlets after he made a series of allegations about her personal life as she mounted a bid for reelection.
David Wheeler, president of the American Muckrakers Political Action Committee, sued the Colorado Republican in federal court in Colorado on June 8, alleging Boebert appeared on “The Sean Hannity Show” last year among other media outlets to deny Wheeler’s allegations that she’d used meth, had two abortions, and worked as a paid escort — and threatened to sue him and his PAC.
“Defendant Boebert admitted during that broadcast that her motive was to thwart Plaintiffs’ first amendment rights to public participation in matters of public concern, stating, ‘We’re going to make sure this political hack never has the opportunity to do this to anyone else again,'” the suit, obtained by Insider, says.
American Muckrakers, which bills itself as a political action committee that reports on candidates seeking reelection, said in court papers that sources who knew Boebert, including an alleged witness who was purported to work at Boebert’s now-shuttered “Shooter’s Grill,” substantiated its claims.
“When faced with Plaintiffs’ well-corroborated scoops, reporting that Congresswoman Boebert served as a paid escort, had twice aborted pregnancies and had used illegal drugs including methamphetamine, Defendant went on the offensive by threatening litigation and making the news-story about Plaintiffs’ character, funding, and alleged mendacity,” the legal complaint says.
Boebert did not follow through with her threat to sue Wheeler or American Muckrakers, the lawsuit says. She did say the allegations weren’t true on Twitter and in interviews.
Fact Check: Not true.
Fake News. Four Pinocchios.
Also…
Y’all need Jesus!
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) June 15, 2022
Wheeler alleged Boebert’s legal threats and interviews with media outlets damaged both his and American Muckracker’s reputation and violated his First Amendment rights. He said he’d received death threats and that donations to American Muckrackers tanked following Boebert’s media appearances.
Wheeler is seeking money damages, any money Boebert earned from her purported defamation of him, and for the media entities to retract the alleged defamatory statements, according to the lawsuit.
A representative of Boebert did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on Friday.
In a statement to Fox News after her attorney sent a letter to the PAC threatening legal action, Boebert said she would not “stand by and pretend this is normal behavior.”
“Partisan organizations putting out blatantly false and disgusting accusations won’t stop me from advancing freedom and conservative values,” Boebert told Fox News in June 2022.
Read the legal complaint here.