Oil Tycoon Sues Beto O'Rourke For Criticizing His Political Donations - Ring of Fire

[Rhiannon12866]

An oil tycoon in Texas is suing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke for saying that his political donation to Republicans in Texas "looked like a bribe." The tycoon, former Energy Transfer CEO Kelcy Warren, is now suing O'Rourke for defamation, but the specific line that sparked the lawsuit will likely result in the case immediately being laughed out of court. Beto has been careless with his words in the past, but this time he's untouchable, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.

[TexasTowelie]

1. One point that Farron Cousins didn't make in the video

is that it isn't defamation, libel, or slander when the allegations are true. I don't believe that the shareholders at Energy Transfer are going to look kindly upon Kelcy Warren if a bunch of investigators come into the company examining financial reports and emails, plus having the company officers deposed. That will send the stock price for a decline.

[SheltieLover]

3. Discovery should be a real circus

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Excellent point, but then these litigious Republicans think lawsuits solve everything

And, like TFG, there's a good chance it will backfire on him...

[SheltieLover]

2. Kicking for visibility

[Midnight Writer]

5. These lawsuits are not designed to win. They are intended to harass.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. Kelcy is not going to like this

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. A Billionaire Is Suing Beto, What Comes Next?

This lawsuit is really sad. The lawyer who filed this lawsuit is the Kasowitz firm that is not known for First Amendment issues but is known for representing TFG and Russian Oligarch. The Houston office of this firm is mainly employment litigators

To win this lawsuit, Kelcy needs to prove that Beto made a statement of fact that Beto knew was false. The complained statements are statement of opinions, and you can sue for this

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On Monday, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke made headlines when he announced at a campaign event that a billionaire was going to file a lawsuit against him. Sure enough, a defamation lawsuit against O’Rourke was filed in San Saba County later that day.

The man bringing the lawsuit against O’Rourke is Kelcy Warren, the co-founder and current Chairman of the Board of Directors at Energy Transfer Partners, one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. His lawsuit is seeking damages against O’Rourke for defamation, slander, and libel.....

“There have to be very clear misstatements of fact, if there are merely opinions, generally speaking, they are not going to be actionable as defamation,” said Shavin. The standard of the law applies even further to a public official, according to Shavin. “It’s not enough just to prove it’s false or defamatory, it’s got to be proven that it was made with actual malice.”....

Shavin pointed to a Texas case to describe the very high bar for meeting defamation: Carr v. Brasher. In that case, the Texas Supreme Court denied rehearing a case from Lynn Brasher, the former mayor of South Houston, against his election opponent (and new mayor) Al Thiel and Walter Carr, a campaign aide who authored campaign brochures. Brasher alleged that Carr committed libel for some of those campaign brochures for an election in 1985. Some of the allegations raised in those brochures included “payoffs” Brasher made to bookkeepers. The defense for Thiel and Carr rested on the absence of “malice” in the accusation.

This lawsuit will be fun to watch

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. Beto denies Kelcy Warren's defamation allegations and moves to change venue to El Paso County

Chadd Dunn is a great attorney who won the Texas voter id case a while back.

Link to tweet