DECEMBER 18, 2024 |
Photo – WY Judicial Branch logo – Courtesy courts.state.wy.us
A Sweetwater County district court judge will hear arguments next month in the defamation case brought by two Wyoming lawmakers against a political action committee affiliated with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Rock Springs Reps. J.T. Larson and Cody Wylie sued WY Freedom PAC in July for sending text messages and mailers to potential voters claiming that the lawmakers had voted “with the RADICAL LEFT to remove President Trump from the ballot.” No such vote has ever been held by the Wyoming Legislature.
The two Republican state lawmakers allege that the PAC knew its statements were false and made them with actual malice — a legal standard in defamation cases involving public figures or officials.
Wylie said the political action committee lied “to affect the election cycle.”
Ultimately, Larson and Wylie beat Freedom Caucus-backed opponents in the primary, and both will return to Cheyenne in January for their second terms.
Ironically, their attorney, outgoing lawmaker Rep. Clark Stith (R-Rock Springs) — who lost his reelection bid this year to Freedom Caucus-backed primary challenger Darin McCann — argues the PAC’s statements harmed their reputations and forced both to spend “substantial additional sums of money” on their campaigns.
The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint on Oct. 14 to account for additional mailers sent after the initial suit and to strengthen their legal argument before the court.
On Oct. 25, attorneys for the PAC asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing the suit fails to state a claim and accusing Larsen and Wylie of “seeking to punish and censor criticism of their records as legislators and to profit from their public service.”
Teton County attorney Mark Jackowski and Washington D.C.-based attorney Stephen Klein, argue that the mailers and text messages sent by the PAC do not constitute defamation and “were made in the course of political campaigning, where imaginative expressions and hyperbole are at their zenith.”
The PAC targeted other state lawmakers last year, as well. Reps. Landon Brown (R-Cheyenne), Lloyd Larsen (R-Lander), Ember Oakley (R-Riverton) and Dan Zwonitzer (R-Cheyenne) were also accused of voting “with the RADICAL LEFT to remove President Trump from the ballot” in mailers sent to voters.
Larsen and Wylie were the only two lawmakers to file suit.
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Jan. 31 in Rock Springs.
