A Fox News host has been sued for defamation by former Hunter Biden associate and current witness in the impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden Tony Bobuliski, after she claimed on a network program that his legal fees were being covered by a Trump Super PAC.
The $30 million suit, filed on March 28 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, said the claims made by “The Five” co-host Jessica Tarlov were “unequivocally false and defamatory.”
Also part of the lawsuit is Stefan Passantino, an attorney who worked in President Trump’s Office of White House Counsel and was hired by the Trump Organization. He has represented Mr. Bobulinski on legal matters.
Clarification
Ms. Tarlov attempted to retract comments she made in the March 20 episode of the show the following day, after attorneys for Mr. Bobulinski sent a letter threatening to sue the network for defamation.“I would like to clarify a comment I made yesterday during our discussion of Tony Bobulinski’s appearance at the congressional hearing,” she said. “During an exchange with my colleagues about the hearing, I said that Mr. Bobulinski’s 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. Bobulinski’s legal fees and he denies that they were.”
Fox News said in a statement to The Epoch Times that Ms. Tarlov’s comments were accurate and defended her on-air correction.
Retraction Demanded
Though Tarlov’s statement on air the following day was characterized as a retraction, the lawsuit said instead it was a “petulant” attempt to avoid making a complete retraction and apology.“Petulantly, Ms. Tarlov failed to retract and apologize, as is more fully addressed in this Complaint,” the suit claimed. “Accordingly, Messrs. Bobulinski and Mr. Passantino seek to hold Defendant accountable for her malicious and knowing lies.”
The suit claims they sent another letter to the network telling them Tarlov’s “attempted retraction” was “half-hearted, incomplete, and unacceptable.”
“She was given a second chance to remedy her defamatory comments,” the suit stated. “Specifically, Ms. Tarlov petulantly made it a point during the March 21, 2024, show to later state that her failed retraction attempt was a ‘clarification,’ not an apology. Furthermore, by saying, ‘What was actually said at the hearing,’ Ms. Tarlov left the wrong impression with the show’s viewers, which was intentional.”
The suit further claims that the comments made regarding Mr. Bobulinski were meant to “inflame a segment of the country” and further a “pattern of hostile and malicious intent to defame the character and reputation of anyone associated with President Trump, such as Mr. Passantino, and anyone who dared speak up against the Biden family.”
Further claimed is that since 2020, when Mr. Bobulinski first started speaking publicly against the Biden family, he has spent over $500,000 of his own money on legal fees.
The Original Comments
During the House oversight hearing, Mr. Bobulinski testified that President Biden was aware of and participated in his family’s business schemes. Another of Mr. Biden’s former business partners, Jason Galanis, also testified.The president has repeatedly denied having any knowledge of or involvement in his family members’ businesses.
During the March 20 episode of “The Five,” the co-hosts were discussing whether Mr. Bobulinski’s testimony implicated President Biden.
Earlier in March, Mr. Bobulinski filed a $10 million defamation lawsuit against former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who served under President Donald Trump, alleging she lied about him in a book she recently published titled “Enough.”
In that book, Ms. Hutchinson claimed that Mr. Bobulinski wore a “ski mask” during a meeting with President Trump’s then-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, at a 2020 campaign rally in Rome, Georgia.
During the meeting, Mr. Meadows also handed Mr. Bobulinski a folded-up sheet of paper or a small envelope, Ms. Hutchinson wrote in the book. The interaction left her with a “pit in my stomach,” she wrote.
However, in his lawsuit against her, Mr. Bobulinski argued Ms. Hutchinson’s claims were false and gave the impression that the two men had done something nefarious or unethical, when in fact the two men had merely been speaking about Mr. Bobulinski’s well-being after he had received death threats for his comments that were critical of the Biden family’s business dealings.
The defamatory statement has “directly and proximately caused Mr. Bobulinski to suffer significant damages, including direct damages, damages to his reputation, humiliation, embarrassment, mental anguish, anxiety, and fear for his safety and the safety of his family members, all of which are ongoing in nature and will be suffered in the future,” the lawsuit states.
