Cliven Bundy Sues Democratic House Candidate For Defamation In Nevada

Cliven Bundy attends the funeral for friend LaVoy Finicum in Kanab, Utah, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. Finicum was shot to death by law enforcement while he and other anti-government activists flocked to rural Harney Count... Cliven Bundy attends the funeral for friend LaVoy Finicum in Kanab, Utah, Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. Finicum was shot to death by law enforcement while he and other anti-government activists flocked to rural Harney County in Oregon. (Jeffrey D. Allred/The Deseret News via AP) MORE LESS
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Cliven Bundy – the Nevada rancher scheduled to go to trial early next year for his 2014 armed standoff against the federal government – is suing a Democratic congressional candidate for defamation for linking the standoff to the deaths of two Law Vegas police officers.

In a complaint filed in state court in Clark County, Nevada, Bundy alleges that Ruben Kihuen engaged in “willful and malicious defamatory communications.” Kihuen is the Democratic nominee for the House in Nevada’s 4th Congressional District. In response to the lawsuit, Kihuen’s campaign denied that the campaign communications were defamatory.

Bundy’s lawsuit centers on a television ad (more on that in a moment) and a campaign mailer that tied Kihuen’s Republican opponent, Rep. Cresent Hardy (R-NV), to Bundy. The mailer alleged that Bundy’s 2014 standoff “led to the death of two Las Vegas police officers.”

The complaint doesn’t specifically identify the mailer in question. Bundy’s lawyer Bret Whipple told TPM in a phone interview, “I know there is at least one and potentially two mailers I am concerned about.” The mailer below was provided to TPM by the Kihuen campaign and matches the description included in the complaint.

The Kihuen campaign told TPM it never aired a TV ad alleging that the 2014 Bundy standoff led to the deaths of two Las Vegas police officers.

As for the TV ad referenced in the complaint, Whipple said, “I have not seen the TV ad myself.”

“I don’t watch TV normally and if I do I just flip it to the History channel,” Whipple said. “I was told by people, in fact one of my paralegals, that they observed it. “

The backstory on the police shootings:

In 2014, Jared and Amanda Miller – a husband and wife – killed two Las Vegas police officers. At the time, news outlets reported that the Millers shared “some apparent ideology that is along the lines of militia and white supremacists” and that they had both spent time at the Bundy Ranch standoff earlier 2014. After shooting the police in a restaurant, the pair moved to a Walmart where they shot another man. Then, Jared Miller was killed by police and Amanda Miller committed suicide, according to news reports from the time.

In his complaint, Bundy denies meeting with or speaking to the Millers:

In a statement, the Kihuen campaign called Bundy’s complaint “beyond absurd.”

“Cliven Bundy led an illegal armed standoff at Bunkerville, and when it was over two of his supporters assassinated two Las Vegas metro police officers,” campaign manager Dave Chase said. “It is beyond absurd for Cliven Bundy to pretend he’s worried about protecting his ‘good name’ while his son is talking to national media about leading yet another armed insurrection, this time at Gold Butte. This lawsuit – filed just days before an election – is clearly nothing more than a political stunt from Cliven Bundy on behalf of his close friend and ally Congressman Hardy.”

Read the complaint:

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  1. Avatar for xyxox xyxox says:

    Given the standard of evidence in civil trials, it is easy to draw a straight line from his illegal standoff to the deaths of two cops.

    It will be dismissed summarily.

  2. Something something Jew media white peopLe are experiencing a holocaust of white.

  3. Avatar for pshah pshah says:

    “I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

    “And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

    Hmm…seems much more defamatory to me, nor worthy of a lawsuit, but most definitely defamatory.

  4. May it please the court, Mr. Bundy didn’t know those people, he never talked to those people, and he was far too busy, what with all the crowds bustling on and off his ranch pointing guns at federal officers and denouncing them as jackbooted thugs and so forth, to do any such influencing as the materials in question alleged. Can we haz some money now?

    ETA: OH FFS the killers were at the goddamn Bundy ranch and were thrown off for being felons in possession of firearms. Bundy’s lucky if their victims’ families don’t sue him. Eejit.

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