Former Hunter Biden associate Tony Bobulinski and his attorney, Stefan Passantino, have sued Fox News talker and Democratic operative Jessica Tarlov in federal court for defamation.
The three-count lawsuit seeks $30 million for Tarlov’s claim on The Five, Fox’s popular 5 p.m. gabfest. Tarlov falsely said that GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s super PAC, Save America, paid Bobulinski’s legal fees in connection with his congressional testimony about the Biden Crime Family.
Tarlov returned to the air with only a clarification after Bobulinski and Passantino demanded a retraction and apology. Fox News backs Tarlov’s false claim.
The Defamation
“Ok, Tony Bobulinski’s lawyers’ fees have been paid by a Trump Super PAC,” Tarlov said on March 20. “That’s as recent as January.”
The next day, the lawsuit says, the two men demanded that she retract and apologize.
But Tarlov did nothing of the sort, the lawsuit alleges. Instead, she returned to the program and delivered this non-apology:
I would like to clarify a comment I made yesterday during our discussion of Tony Bobulinski’s appearance at the congressional hearing. During an exchange with my colleagues about the hearing, I said that Mr. Bobulinski’s lawyer’s fees have been paid for by a Trump Super PAC as recently as January. What was actually said at the hearing was that the law firm representing Mr. Bobulinski was paid by a Trump PAC. I have seen no indication that those payments were made in connection to Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees, and he denies that they were. Alright.
So the next day, Bobulinksi and Passantino wrote to Fox News to say “that the attempted retraction was half-hearted, incomplete, and unacceptable.”
“Specifically, Ms. Tarlov petulantly made it a point during the March 21, 2024, show to later state that her failed retraction attempt was a ‘clarification,’ not an apology,” the lawsuit alleges:
Furthermore, by saying, “What was actually said at the hearing,” Ms. Tarlov left the wrong impression with the show’s viewers, which was intentional. Specifically, she intended to convey the belief that it was a matter of determined fact resulting from the hearing, not merely part of a theatrical and nonsensical performance by a democrat representative who also sought to attack Plaintiffs as the source of the evidence, rather than address the evidence presented during the hearing, that Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees were being paid for by a Trump Super PAC and that Mr. Passantino’s law firm secretly accepted funds from any source other than Mr. Bobulinski for his representation.
As a Democratic strategist, the lawsuit continues, Tarlov’s claim was “consistent with a well-established pattern of hostile and malicious intent to defame the character and reputation of anyone associated with President Trump, such as Mr. Passantino, and anyone who dared speak up against the Biden family.”
The lawsuit says that Bobulinski has spent $500,000 of his own money on lawyers since he blew the whistle on the Biden Crime Family’s deep financial involvement with Red China’s ruling Communist Party. Trump’s Super PAC paid none of his fees, the lawsuit says. And Passantino’s law firm accepted no money from the PAC in payment for Bobulinski’s fees.
Because Tarlov is a Democratic operative and has “a wealth of resources by virtue of working for a mass media company,” she knew that the PAC had not and was not paying Bobulinki’s legal fees.
The lawsuit also cites Tarlov’s longtime “malice” for the plaintiffs:
On February 21, 2024, on The Five, while discussing Mr. Bobulinski, Defendant stated: “This is the path that they’ve chosen to take, and honestly, I’m surprised that they have this high of a threshold for humiliation. Every witness they have called has decimated their argument.” She continued: “Even Senate Republicans have not found Tony Bobulinski to be credible, so, he gives a great cable news interview. I understand it’s very compelling for people who want to believe Joe Biden is actually Gotti, a mob boss.”
The lawsuit alleges that X accounts with more than 100,000 followers repeated the falsehood, and so “Defendant’s malicious objective to besmirch Plaintiffs had been achieved.”
The Counts
Count I alleges defamation and defamation per se. Tarlov’s claims are “categorically false” and were broadcast live “knowing that they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth.” And “it was obvious,” Count I alleges, “that Mr. Passantino was not being paid by a Trump Super PAC” to represent Bobulinski, “and that no Trump Super PACs had paid any of Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees.”
The lawsuit alleges that Tarlov tried to “destroy [Bobulinski’s] credibility” and “subjected him to hatred, distrust, ridicule, contempt, and/or disgrace by a certain segment of America and the world which lives in an alternate reality.”
Tarlov defamed Passantino in his profession by claiming he was “part of a scheme to present politically motivated and improperly paid for tainted testimony in violation of his ethical duties.”
Furthermore, Tarlov “published the defamatory statements knowingly, intentionally, willfully, wantonly, and maliciously, with intent to harm.”
Count II alleges defamation by implication because Tarlov “intentionally omitted the context of the hearing” in remarks from Democratic Representative Jasmine Crockett of Texas. She had stated that “the law firm representing Tony Bobulinski was paid $10,000 as recently as January of this year by the Save America PAC, which you may recognize as Donald Trump’s PAC.”
Count II alleges Crockett attempted to discredit Bobulinski by linking a payment from the PAC for work in the past “completely unrelated” to Passantino’s work for Bobulinski. The statement was an “attempt to imply defamatory innuendo and an understanding by the viewers that the Trump Super PAC was paying Mr. Passantino for his representation of Mr. Bobulinski.”
In repeating the claim, Tarlov “sought to discredit both Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Passantino.”
Count III alleges injurious falsehood to Passantino. “Defendant intended for her false statements to destroy Mr. Passantino’s reputation, to ruin his ability to practice law and to harm him financially,” the count alleges, because Tarlov knew and intended to harm Passantino and his law firm.
The plaintiff wants $10 million for each count. The lawsuit was filed on March 28 in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York.
As for Fox, it stands by the false, defamatory claims. “Tarlov’s March 21st statements were accurate and made clear that she was not aware of anything to indicate that payments from a Trump PAC to Elections, LLC were made in connection with Tony Bobulinski’s legal fees,” the network said. “We stand by our decision to not issue any further corrections and will vigorously defend against these inaccurate claims.”
H/T: Just the News
