Adelson Defamation Lawsuit Seeks $60 million in Damages

Yid with Lid:

GOOD FOR HIM! Yesterday it was announced that casino magnate and major Republican donor, Sheldon Adelson is suing the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) for defamation. 

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Adelson filed the lawsuit yesterday and the NJDC released this statement:
 

We will not be bullied into submission, and we will not be silenced by power. This is not Putin’s Russia, and in America, political speech regarding one of the most well-known public figures in our country is a fundamental right. One would think the person making greatest use of the Citizens United ruling would understand this. To be sure, referencing mainstream press accounts examining the conduct of a public figure and his business ventures — as we did — is wholly appropriate. Indeed, it is both an American and a Jewish obligation to ask hard questions of powerful individuals like Mr. Adelson, just as it is incumbent upon us to praise his wonderful philanthropic endeavors.

  We know that we were well within our rights, and we will defend ourselves against this SLAPP suit as far and as long as necessary. We simply will not be bullied, and we will not be silenced.

The WSJ has more, including the amount of damages being sought: $60 million.

 

Note #1: The National Jewish Democratic Council is a 501(c)(4) organization. As you may know from all the noise - und sturm und drang - on the left at the very mention of Citizens United, the identities of donors to 501(c)(4) organizations are not required to be made public.

Note #2: Sheldon Adelson was born and grew up in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. He worked as a mortgage broker, investment adviser and financial consultant. He started a business selling toiletry kits, and in the 1960s he started a charter tours business. Adelson went to college at the City College of New York, but dropped out. Decades later, this American Success Story is a multi-billionaire, chairman and CEO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation and listed in the Forbes 400 as the eighth wealthiest American.

 

 

Comments

[Mannie Sherberg]

There are few things more obnoxious than pietistic sanctimony -- and, by that standard, the NJDC statement is pretty darned obnoxious. By claiming that their attack on Mr. Adelson ("asking hard questions of powerful individuals") is their "American and Jewish obligation," they make themselves (or try to make themselves) sound like nothing more than stalwart defenders of the First Amendment and of the Torah. Their politics, of course, had nothing to do with their scurrility against Mr. Adelson; they were simply being zealous for the Constitution and for the observing of mitzvot. I guess their next step will be to ask the court to drop the suit because it violates their right to practice their religion as they see fit. The medieval sage Bahya ibn Paquda said that "there is no limit to the number of men the hypocrite will worship." That is no doubt true -- but the hypocrites of the NJDC worship only one man, and his name is Barack Obama. They call it, I suppose, secular monotheism.

[Tablet Accessories]

Defamation is truly a deceitful and destructive crime. With social networks widespread nowadays, wrong info would spread like wildfire.