One of the first johns in the “Millionaire Madam” scandal has been named: former presidential candidate John Edwards allegedly hired pricey call girls from the exclusive NY escort service.
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After the story broke, Edwards’ attorney held a press conference calling the allegations “false” and “defamatory.”
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To paraphrase from the Princess Bride, I do not think “defamatory” means what he thinks it means.
To defame a man, he must have a good reputation that’s harmed by the allegations. Edwards’ reputation is so low, there’s not much left to damage. Check out this Daily Beast footage, where Meghan McCain calls Edwards “the Charlie Sheen of politics,” and one analyst opines that Edwards could be caught clubbing puppies and no one would be surprised.
Edwards has already admitted to cheating on his dying wife with a flaky blonde he hired to be his campaign videographer. After she bore his illegitimate child, he persuaded his married male staffer to pretend to be the baby’s father. Edwards lied about the affair repeatedly before finally fessing up. Oh, and he’s now facing federal criminal charges for illegally using campaign funds to support the mistress and cover up the scandal.
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Heck, sleeping with prostitutes seems like a step up.
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According to lawyers who’ve worked for tabloids, certain public figures have such terrible reputations, you can say just about anything about them and it doesn’t rise to the level of defamation. These guys’ reputations just can’t get any worse. Perhaps OJ Simpson can buy Edwards a drink and welcome him to the club.
Andrew MacKie-Mason says
26 March, 2012 at 9:39 pmI’m not quite convinced. Newt Gingrich has done most of those things too; does that mean we can say anything about him without being sued for defamation?
Allison Leotta says
27 March, 2012 at 10:17 amI hear ya. But in the Gingrich/Edwards Cheating-on-Wife-Dying-of-Cancer-Off, Edwards takes the cake. Gingrich didn’t: (1) father a love child with his mistress while married to his wife, (2) repeatedly lie on national TV about fathering said child, (3) merit federal criminal charges being brought against him, or (4) hypocritically run on being a solid family man. While someone with a strong imagination could come up with scenarios that could still make Edwards reputation worse than it already is, it would be a serious challenge.
James Pollock says
26 March, 2012 at 11:18 pmThis is one of those areas were sexist law still exists: Call a woman a prostitute in public and it’s per se defamation; accuse a man of being with a prostitute in public and… not much. This is why Rush is going to wind up paying to settle a claim, but this case won’t even see a threat of a lawsuit.
I disagree that Mr. Edwards is defamation-proof, though I’ll concede not by much.
Allison Leotta says
27 March, 2012 at 10:20 amHey James, as noted above, I do think there are a few (fairly wild) scenarios that could still harm Edwards’ remaining reputation. But they’d have to be pretty damn grim.
Generally, I think that if you accuse a man of sleeping with prostitutes, it is defamatory. Just not in Edwards case. Sleeping with prostitutes may have been the most honest thing he did in his personal life.
Eddie says
28 March, 2012 at 6:39 pmI think Edwards is striving to be the American version of DSK. If he can’t be president then he will settle for the next best thing, the “American Great Seducer”.
luLu says
2 April, 2012 at 6:27 amWhat else can he say? His kids are old enough to read.
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