Tulsi Gabbard Sued Hillary Clinton For Defamation Over Her “Russian Asset” Comment – By Julia Reinstein (Buzzfeed) / Jan 22 2020
Gabbard is claiming Clinton has a personal grudge against her for her 2016 endorsement of Bernie Sanders.
Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard filed a defamation lawsuit against Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, alleging Clinton’s remarks about her being a “Russian asset” were “false assertions [that] were made in a deliberate attempt to derail Tulsi’s presidential campaign.”
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, stems from an October 2019 comment, where Clinton accused Gabbard of being “the favorite of the Russians” for the 2020 race. The remark was made during an interview on David Plouffe’s podcast, Campaign HQ.
“I’m not making any predictions, but I think [the Republicans] got their eye on somebody who’s currently in the Democratic Party,” Clinton said. “They’re grooming her to be the third-party candidate. The favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and ways of courting her so far, and that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, because she’s a Russian asset. Yeah, she’s a Russian asset. Totally.”
Though Clinton did not directly name Gabbard at the time, when her team was later asked about it, Clinton’s spokesperson Nick Merril said, ““If the nesting doll fits.”
The lawsuit, which was shared on Gabbard’s campaign website, says that, “Tulsi has been harmed by Clinton’s lies — and American democracy has suffered as well.”
“With this action, Tulsi seeks to hold Clinton, and the political elites who enable her, accountable for distorting the truth in the middle of a critical Presidential election,” the suit reads.
Continue to article: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/tulsi-gabbard-hillary-clinton-defamation-lawsuit
