Earlier this month, the New York Southern District Court announced a significant update in the defamation lawsuit against liberal co-host on Fox News’s “The Five” Jessica Tarlov. According to an October 2 development, the district court will hear arguments on a move to dismiss the case against the political commentator at the end of the month.
According to a recent order, “The Court will hear in-person oral argument on the pending motion to dismiss on October 24, 2024, at 10:30 am, in Courtroom 706, 40 Foley Square, New York, New York.” For months, the defamation lawsuit, filed by Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s, has been battled out in court.
Bobulinski initially filed the lawsuit in March, seeking to sue Tarlov for $30 million over comments she made on air about his legal fees. The suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York claimed that Tarlov “lied” when she claimed a Trump SUPER PAC had paid for Bobulinski’s legal fees. Tarlov made the controversial remarks after Bobulinski had testified before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
“The lawyers fees have been Tony Bobulinski lawyers fees have been paid by a Trump Super PAC that’s as recent as January,” Tarlov said earlier this year. “Do you think that a guy who’s invested in how much better off he wants the United States to be and really getting to the bottom of this would be taking money from the guy who extorted the Ukrainians to get dirt on the Bidens and we should talk about Lev Parnas who’s the democratic witness.”
The very next day, Tarlov was forced to issue a retraction, stating, “I would like to clarify a comment I made yesterday during our discussion of Tony Bobulinski appearance at the congressional hearing. During exchange with my colleagues about the hearing, I said that Mr. Bobulinski lawyers fees have been paid by a Trump Super Pac as recently as January. What was actually said during the hearing was that the law firm representing Mr. Bobulinski was paid by a Trump PAC. I have seen no indication those payments were made in connection with Mr. Bobulisnki’s legal fees and he denies that they were.”
Amid the lawsuit, Fox News stood behind Tarlov’s retraction. “Jessica Tarlov’s March 21st statements were accurate and made clear that she was not aware of anything to indicate that payments from a Trump PAC to Elections, LLC were made in connection with Tony Bobulinski’s legal fees,” according to a representative of the conservative news network. “We stand by our decision to not issue any further corrections and will vigorously defend against these inaccurate claims.”
Reports indicate that Bobulinski had become aligned with figures such as White House lawyer Stefan Passantino, where firms connected to him received over $1 million from Trump-affiliated PACs. “It is a matter of fact that Mr. Passantino was paid solely by Mr. Bobulinski for his several years of previous representation, no differently than for his representation on March 20, 2024,” Bobulinski’s lawyers maintained. “Notably, no third parties have ever paid for any portion of Mr. Passantino’s representation of Mr. Bobulinski.”
Watch Tarlov’s retraction below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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