WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) – Fox News and several of its personalities want a Delaware federal judge to throw out the defamation lawsuit of Michael Avenatti.
Avenatti, known for representing adult-film actress Stormy Daniels in her lawsuits against President Donald Trump and an alleged extortion scheme involving Nike, sued Fox News over its coverage of his 2018 arrest for domestic violence. Formal charges were not filed.
What he calls defamation, Fox News calls accurate reporting.
“The gravamen of Mr. Avenatti’s claim is that while he was arrested ‘on suspicion’ of domestic violence, he was never ‘charged’ with a crime,” the motion says.
“According to Mr. Avenatti, ‘there [i]s a marked, material difference – factually, legally, reputationally and culturally – between someone being arrested on suspicion of having committed a crime and someone actually being charged with a crime.
“Mr. Avenatti is wrong as a matter of law.”
Despite the case being filed in Delaware, the defendants say California law should control it and that Avenatti missed the statute of limitations to sue when he waited until November 2020.
They also say he has failed to plead Fox News acted with actual malice, a standard for libel lawsuits that Trump’s campaign was recently unable to clear in a case against CNN.
Fox News personalities included as defendants in the case include Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Bret Baier. They are represented by attorneys at Ross Aronstam & Moritz and Brown George Ross.