About a week ago, Evelyn Pringle, the author of the Operation Board Games, Curtain Time for Barack Obama, and Pringle Cliff Notes series of articles, received word from web sites that carried her articles that they had been contacted by Iraqi-British billionaire businessman Nadhmi Auchi’s attorney, Alasdair Pepper, with threats to sue. Her emailed response follows after the jump.
Pam Geller at Atlas Shrugs reported June 24, 2008, that blogger A Jacksonian also received a threatening letter telling him to remove a June 10, 2008, article regarding a “dirty money trail” between Obama, convicted political fixer Antoin “Tony” Rezko and Auchi.
RezkoWatchers may recall that RW received a similar threatening email on February 9, 2008. The RW response is posted here. Larry Johnson at No Quarter received a similar letter on February 14, 2008, likewise claiming that Johnson’s blog contains “highly defamatory and false allegations” about Auchi.
Other intimidating letters and lawsuits issued on Auchi’s behalf have resulted in articles published in the UK’s The Guardian/Observer and other European media outlets to be webscrubbed.
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 14:11:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: Evelyn Pringle
Subject: I want you to stop threatening to sue over my articles
To: Alasdair.Pepper @ carter-ruck.com
Dear Mr Pepper:
Although you have never informed me of your client’s objections to my articles, it has been brought to my attention that you are attempting to intimidate sites that publish my work by threatening to sue them for defamation.
I ask that you cease this tactic immediately. Your actions are not only violating my right to free speech but they are also adversely affecting my business relationships and livelihood.
I will gladly defend any action filed against me in the US by your client. However, in order to sue me he would have to appear here before a jury and you and I know he is not allowed in this country. Therefore, your actions represent harassment and unlawful intimidation of a professional journalist.
If I get any more reports that you are trying to sabatoge my relationships with publications, I will contact the US attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald and the US Department of Justice to seek legal advice on how to put a stop to your illegal conduct.
I will be forwarding a copy of this email to all of the sites that publish my work.
If Mr Auchi was allowed in this country, I would be the one filing a law suit against him.
Truly,
Evelyn Pringle
Update: Freddy Gray, Eye Spy. The Audacity of Auchi, The American Conservative, June 27, 2008.
Our citizens may be deceived for awhile, and have been deceived; but as long as the presses can be protected, we may trust to them for light.--Thomas Jefferson.
My two cents here…
Mr Auchi should have thought twice before he waded into the sewer of Chicago politics for dinner at Rezko’s. Your lucky if you only leave with crud on your pants when you play with this crowd in Chicago.
My response if she had hired me would have been along the lines of:
“Kiss her ass.”
Basically the 1st Amendment works like this:
Say what you like about public figures within reason. Knowingly publishing false statements is prohibited. Truth is always a defense. Opinion so long as presented as opinion is permissible. Private figures are a bit different. There is a higher standard and the basic concept is that the speech is not harassing or intended to menace or harm.
BTW- Fitz and the DOJ can’t give free legal advise to private citizens. BUT it can entertain appropriate complaints of harassment and intimidation by foreign nationals. Maybe getting a Congressman to help lodge a complaint may get some real notice.
Anyhow, past all that, Auchi seems a bit scared. His huge pile of money should insulate him from comments by others just because the folks saying them are small potatoes….. yet, he persists in spending $500-$1000 an hour for that firm to send out harassing letters???? Seem counterproductive to me unless he is getting something out of it on some other end.
[...] Of Meeting Obama or Michelle.” Alasdair Pepper is the attorney whose name appears on the Carter-Ruck demand [...]
[...] Of Meeting Obama or Michelle.” Alasdair Pepper is the attorney whose name appears on the Carter-Ruck demand [...]
[...] Of Meeting Obama or Michelle.” Alasdair Pepper is the attorney whose name appears on the Carter-Ruck demand [...]