Tuesday, September 26, 2017

GOP Rep. Darrell Issa ordered to pay opponent $45,000 in legal fees after losing ridiculous lawsuit

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/12/1698047/-GOP-Rep-Darrell-Issa-ordered-to-pay-opponent-45-000-in-legal-fees-after-losing-ridiculous-lawsuit
"The ultra-wealthy Republican congressman from Southern California barely survived a challenge last year from Marine veteran Doug Applegate, who got under Issa's skin with a TV ad arguing (quite accurately) that Issa had used his many years in office to make himself even richer. Issa prepared a legal complaint about the ad during the peak of the 2016 campaign, but bizarrely, he waited to file it until the day before the election. He should have waited forever. Earlier this year, a state court judge dismissed the case, finding that Applegate had said nothing inaccurate, and he further ruled that Issa had violated a California law against lawsuits designed to intimidate the exercise of free speech (known as an "anti-SLAPP" law). That latter ruling allowed Applegate to recover his attorneys' fees from Issa (something not usually awarded in American legal proceedings), and now the judge has ordered Issa to pay Applegate and his campaign $45,000."