The legal team for former Maryland GOP congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik has filed a defamation suit against conservative commentator Candace Owens.
Klacik seeks $20 million in damages in relation to Owens’s claim that Klacik is a “madame†for a strip club, a claim that cost Klacik a book deal and resulted in politicians within the GOP distancing themselves from her by pulling out of fundraising events.
“Baseless character assassination has no place in political dialogue‚†Jacob Frenkel, an attorney representing Klacik, told The Baltimore Sun. “The defendant chose to use her huge social media platform to attack a respected Baltimore political figure; we are using the proper forum — the power of the courts — to respond. The detail in Ms. Klacik’s lawsuit speaks for itself.â€Â
Owens had made the claims in an Instagram video posted on June 22. She accused Klacik of “money laundering, tax fraud and campaign fraud†and running strippers out of a club she says Klacik’s husband owns. Owens posted the video after she and Klacik disagreed on Twitter following President Joe Biden’s declaration of Juneteenth as a national holiday.
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“Specifically, [Owens] affirmatively accused Ms. Klacik of tax fraud, campaign fraud, money laundering, illegal drug use, and acting as a ‘madame.’ There was no truth to the allegations,†the lawsuit stated.
“In making these allegations of criminal activity, [Owens] claimed to have received information from someone who ‘stripped with [Ms. Klacik]’ and who allegedly told [Owens] that Ms. Klacik used campaign funds to purchase cocaine and scammed people of millions,†the complaint adds. “These caustic and made-up defamatory allegations are without factual support.â€
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
