Matt Davis, the attorney for the plaintiff in the defamation suit filed against the Michigan Messenger was quite talkative about the particulars of the suit when TPMmuckraker called him this morning, but declined to say who was paying his legal fees.
“I don’t comment on my clients,” Davis said in answer to inquiries about who was employing him, but directed us to the spokesman for the Michigan Republican party for further questions.
Davis said his client’s suit claims both negligent and malicious defamation and criticized the Messenger for possibly violating their non-profit status by engaging in political speech.
“They call themselves a non-profit,” Davis said, citing a letter he received from an attorney who at the time, claimed to represent the Messenger and its parent company the Center for Independent Media.
“You can’t go out and engage in political speech as a non-profit,” Davis continued. “They risk heavily their 501c3 status. . . I’m in the midst of asking them for their 1033 1090 and also their certification letter from the IRS.”
A call to the GOP spokesman for Michigan was not immediately returned.
