Donald Trump Jr. tweets a lot. Often times he retweets himself. Sometimes there’s unhinged videos. It’s as though he’s making up for the absence of his father, who was kicked off Twitter nearly nine months back. Like his dad, some of what he tweets are provably false. It could get him in trouble some day. Except it already has: For the last two years, he’s tried to shoot down a defamation lawsuit. And a judge just declared that it can move forward.
According to The Washington Post, Jr. was sued by businessman-turned-attempted politician Don Blankenship, whom his father opposed, after he called him a “felon” during his failed 2018 senatorial campaign in West Virginia. He was referring to an accident at one of Blankenship’s mines, which resulted in him being charged with felonies. However, he wound up only being convicted on a misdemeanor. Blankenship attempted to explain this to Don Jr., but to no avail. Don Jr. left the false tweet up until at least June of that year. Blankenship lost his primary race.
Since then, Jr. has been trying to get the case dismissed — but also to no avail. In the judge’s ruling, he points out that Jr. “never retracted or corrected the false tweets, despite being informed of their falsity.”
If that sounds familiar, that’s because Don Jr. is currently doing the very same thing. Republicans recently seized upon an image of a man in silhouette dangling from a noose from a helicopter, claiming that it was a U.S. vehicle that was left behind, being flown by the Taliban. That was quickly debunked. But Don Jr. has continued to spread the lie. He’s even currently using the image as Twitter page banner.
As per the Blankenship lawsuit, Trump’s legal team has argued that news outlets also falsely reported that he was a felon. However, as The Post notes, there’s one key difference:
A key difference, though, as with much of the whataboutism over media fact-checking of the Trumps and their allies, is that many of the media outlets corrected the information. Trump Jr.’s M.O., by contrast, is to press forward even after his many false claims are debunked. The judge also goes further in this case in stating there is evidence Trump Jr. would have known the truth.
Whether or not Blankenship’s lawsuit is successful, it puts yet another legal hurdle in front of the Trump family. But at least the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.
(Via WaPo)