Former Washington Times opinion editor Richard Miniter has filed suit against the Times in U.S. district court in Washington, more than two weeks after first threatening to sue. The complaint lists six counts, including breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and seeks actual and punitive damages.
The full complaint, sent along by Larry Klayman, Miniter’s attorney, can be read here. A clerk at the court confirmed to TPM that a complaint was filed by Miniter today.
Named as defendants along with the Times are: Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the Unification Church leader who founded the paper; News World Communications, the Times’ parent company; Preston Moon, who chairs News World Communications; Publisher Jonathan Slevin; and Beth Wolffe, an attorney for the Times. Also named is One Up Enterprises, reportedly a holding company for the church’s U.S. businesses, and Sonya Jenkins, vice president of human resources at the Times.
The move comes less than week after the troubled newspaper announced it is laying off at least 40 percent of its staff.
Much of the complaint hews to a draft affidavit previously circulated by Miniter, in which he claims he was forced to attend a Unification Church religious ceremony and that he was mistreated by the paper’s management.
Klayman says he drew Judge Ricardo Urbina, a Clinton appointee, for the suit. The complaint seeks a preliminary injunction to stop the defendants from moving or dissipating assets or “destroying evidence”:
80. Based on The Washington Times’ economic condition, the departure of many of its key executives, the non-payment of its debts, the reductions in paid subscriptions and workforce, and its apparent insolvent state, the very international nature of the Unification Church, and the South Korean residency of many of the newspaper’s principals, it appears likely that The Washington Times could close suddenly and easily move its assets outside the Unites States or otherwise hide or dissipate them.
…100. Defendants, each and every one of them, are either engaged in dissipating, moving, hiding, or secreting their assets, and it has been reported that they are in the process of quickly closing down The Washington Times to defraud creditors, employees and others. Plaintiff will suffer irreparable injury if there are not assets available to satisfy a judgment in this cause.
Read the draft injunction here.
The Times‘ spokesman and its lawyer, Beth Wolffe, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
