Right-wing activist Laura Loomer has filed a $150 million defamation lawsuit against Bill Maher and HBO for suggesting on a recent edition of Real Time With Bill Maher that she has committed adultery with Donald Trump.
Loomer, through her attorney, unveiled the complaint today. In it, she alleges that Maher and HBO were “broadcasting with actual malice” during the September 13 edition of Real Time when Maher made his comments about Loomer.
“I think maybe Laura Loomer is in an arranged relationship to affect the election because she’s very close to Trump,” Maher is quoted as saying in the complaint. “She’s 31, looks like his type. We did an editorial here a few years ago … it was basically, who’s Trump f***ing? Because, I said, you know, it’s not nobody. He’s been a dog for too long, and it’s not Melania. I think we may have our answer this week. I think it might be Laura Loomer.”
The lawsuit goes on to call Maher’s comments “false, malicious and defamatory,” saying that “Loomer has never engaged in sexual relations with President Donald Trump. There is not a shred of credible reporting or evidence suggesting otherwise. Defendant Maher had no basis in fact to make this statement. He simply fabricated it for attention, notoriety, ‘clicks’ and profit for himself and Defendant HBO, his employer.”
The lawsuit claims that Maher and HBO refued to issue a retraction, and declined Loomer’s request that she be invited on the show to defend herself.
Loomer is being represented in the case by fellow right-wing activist and former federal prosector Larry Klayman, who is described by the Southern Pooverty Law Center as “a pathologically litigious attorney and professional gadfly notorious for suing everyone from Iran’s Supreme Leader to his own mother.”
Klayman has filed quite a few defamation suits in the past, representing the likes of Roy Moore and George Zimmerman. None have been successful.
Maher and HBO have yet to respond to Loomer’s lawsuit, but a week after making the comments referenced in Loomer’s lawsuit, he shared a series of “fun facts” about Loomer in a different segment on his show:
