erik lundegaard

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Thursday May 28, 2020

Please Please Please Please Please

“President Trump and his minions relentlessly grind out despicable acts — gratuitous insults to war heroes, over 18,000 (and counting) false or misleading statements, many decisions courts have ruled illegal. But Mr. Trump's wantonly cruel tweets about the tragic death in 2001 of Lori Klausutis are distinctive: They may constitute intentional torts for which a civil jury could award punitive damages against him. ...

”Under the court's unanimous 1998 ruling in Paula Jones's sexual harassment suit against President Bill Clinton, both of these lawsuits — by Mr. Klausutis and by Mr. Scarborough — could proceed against the president while he is still in office. Because his tweets reach followers nationwide, the lawsuits could probably be brought in any state. And since the subject of his tweets had nothing to do with his presidential responsibilities, he probably could not hide behind an assertion of executive privilege.“

— Yale law professor Peter H. Schuck, in his Op-Ed, ”Trump's ‘Horrifying Lies’ About Lori Klausutis May Cross a Legal Line," on the New York Times site

Posted at 02:54 PM on Thursday May 28, 2020 in category Law