On Tuesday, Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard filed a defamation lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Hillary Clinton, who called Gabbard a “Russian asset” during a podcast with the Washington Post.
The suit claims the failed ex-presidential candidate Clinton “carelessly and recklessly impugned” her reputation when she suggested in October that one of the 2020 Democratic candidates is “the favorite of the Russians.” She claims Clinton is “distorting the truth in the middle of a critical Presidential election.”
“Although Rep. Gabbard’s presidential campaign continues to gain momentum, she has seen her political and personal reputation smeared and her candidacy intentionally damaged by Clinton’s malicious and demonstrably false remarks,” Brian Dunne, a partner at Gabbard’s law firm, Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht LLP, said in a statement.
Dunne also added that Clinton had shown a “personal hostility” toward Gabbard last fall, and the former secretary of state “resorted to a damaging whisper campaign founded on lies, and when presented with the opportunity to retract her damaging remarks, she refused.”