1:23 PM PT: Thanks to everyone for the support. If you have the time, I'd really like your help with this: Republicans show love for coal, indifference to climate It's original reporting coupled with what I believe may be one of the most pressing political obstacles to preventing climate disaster. Honestly, I don't lose any sleep at all over this lawsuit. But what you see in that other diary is more frightening than anything I saw last night.
11:48 AM PT: I've been asked to provide the link to the article I wrote that is alleged to be defamatory. The article remains live at Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
My lawyers would prefer that I say little until the litigation has run its course, but I wanted to acknowledge the suit and provide you with a link to our motion to dismiss:
http://grist.org/...
Blogger asks Court: Dismiss Libel Case Over Article Linking Cuccinelli to Coal CEO Murray
By David Halperin
Grist guest contributor
This morning, my co-counsel from the ACLU of Ohio and I filed a motion asking a federal court to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed by Robert Murray, CEO of the coal company Murray Energy Corp., against our client Mike Stark. Murray has sued over this article that Stark wrote on the Huffington Post blog about Murray’s campaign donations to Virginia gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli. Murray also has sued the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington, and others working for her site.
We believe Mr. Murray’s case has no merit. All the facts alleged by Mike Stark in his article are true, and the statements about which Mr. Murray complains are all expressions of opinion. The lawsuit, however, may have the effect of stifling debate about policy issues and about Mr. Murray and his company. So we are asking the judge to promptly dismiss it.
(Murray filed the case in state court in St. Clairsville, Ohio, but the defendants removed it to federal court in Columbus. The Huffington Post defendants and Murray filed a stipulation with the court yesterday giving Huffington three more weeks to respond to the Complaint. We didn’t object to that delay, but we didn’t want or need an extension for our reponse.)
Here’s Mike Stark’s Motion to Dismiss filed today:
http://www.scribd.com/...