An activist with a Democratic Party Super PAC sued Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert for defamation in federal court in Colorado.
David Wheeler of American Muckrakers PAC alleges that Boebert defamed him during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on Jun. 16, 2022, and in other media.
He previously sued Boebert in a federal court in North Carolina, but Boebert got the suit tossed because it was filed in the wrong venue.
Federal Election Commission records show that American Muckrakers raised $265,052 during the 2021-2022 election cycle.
Wheeler posted material online that claimed the congresswoman worked as a prostitute and used an escort site, to promote herself to potential clients, on a website called SugarDaddyMeet.com. His site also claimed that Boebert had two abortions.
“Our focus is on holding candidates accountable,” Wheeler told Denver TV station KRDO last year. “The real story is, is she a hypocrite, and has she had abortions?”
Lauren Boebert Claim on Hannity Show Cited in Complaint
Boebert told Hannity according to the suit, “There is no evidence to back up any of their claims. I’m taking legal action against that guy, David Wheeler, and Muckrakers, and we’re moving forward with a lawsuit.” She also told Hannity that her sources told her that Wheeler published the material even though he knew it was false.
“Radical Democrats want me out of office, and they will lie and break the law to try to beat me,” Boebert said.
Wheeler’s suit alleges that Boebert’s comments hindered his PAC’s ability to use its First Amendment rights to oppose her re-election. It claims that American Muckrakers “prides itself in being cautious and thorough in its researching and vetting the accuracy of the information it receives.” It also claims that Wheeler had ample evidence to back up and substantiate his claims about Boebert’s past.
One witness cited in the complaint claimed that Boebert danced nude at a strip club called “Fantasy Grand Junction” in Grand Junction, Colorado. Another claimed that Boebert had used methamphetamine.
Wheeler Told CNN His Research Was Sloppy
Wheeler admitted to CNN last year that his “super PAC had been ‘sloppy’ and had published ‘inaccuracies’ on its anti-Boebert website.”
“SugarDaddyMeet.com” told CNN it had no record that Boebert had ever had a profile on the site. CNN noted that it found that Wheeler’s site had made at least five different inaccurate statements about Boebert.
CNN further noted that a picture alleged to be Boebert, showing a woman in a tight dress on a bed, was not the congresswoman.
“I will concede that. I think somehow our source mixed that up with something else. I don’t know how she mixed it up,” Wheeler said in response to a question from CNN about the alleged photo.
CNN also found that American Muckrakers had erroneously claimed that Boebert had an abortion in the fall of 2004.
An opinion writer for 19FortyFive, John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, The National Interest, National Review Online, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award for his reporting.
From 19FortyFive
