Court: McCrory backers can be sued for defaming 2016 voters – By Bryan Anderson (Associated Press) / Oct 5 2021
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Some supporters of former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory’s efforts to contest the 2016 gubernatorial election results can be sued for allegedly defaming four residents who were falsely accused of voting twice, a North Carolina appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The complaint the Southern Coalition for Social Justice brought forward in 2017 could pave the way for lawmakers and their supporters to be penalized for making inaccurate voter fraud claims in future elections.
The unanimous ruling from the three appeals court judges allows a trial court to hear the case against the Pat McCrory Committee Legal Defense Fund and the Virginia-based Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky law firm named in the complaint.
The judges also decided, however, that William Clark Porter, a GOP official in Greensboro whose signature was on one of the election protests that was filed, is entitled to a legal defense that would likely clear him of defamation claims because he participated in a “quasi-judicial election protest proceeding.”
