Since word spread Monday that a judge ordered controversial preacher Bradlee Dean to pay Rachel Maddow’s legal fees in his lawsuit against her, Dean and his ministry have taken action.
Dean is seeking D.C. Superior Court Judge Joan Zeldon’s recusal from the case after, on June 25, she ruled that Dean must pay nearly $25,000 in legal fees.
“Judges are to enforce the law, not to defend lawbreakers and then award them money,” Dean said in a statement Tuesday. Dean sued MSNBC, Rachel Maddow and a Minnesota alternative publication last summer, claiming comments on his radio show about homosexuals were taken out of context. Alleging slander and false light, Dean sought damages in excess of $50 million.
In the notice filed on Monday, Dean’s lawyer, Larry Klayman — founder of Freedom Watch — claims that Zeldon showed bias and favoritism toward the defendants in the case. Klayman alleges that Zeldon made “snide and offensive comments” against him after he was unable to travel from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. to appear in court. “Judge Zeldon mocked and ridiculed Plaintiffs and their counsel while, to the contrary, Judge Zeldon referred to Defendants’ counsel approvingly as ‘distinguished,’ stating in effect that Plaintiffs and their counsel are not.”
Dean, in the notice, goes so far as to say Judge Zeldon’s “bias” is evident in her “acting like a ‘woman scorned.’”
“This case will be tried in federal court, and Maddow and MSNBC will be held responsible for their hateful and malicious reporting,” Dean concludes in his statement.
MSNBC declined to comment.
Read Dean’s filing below:
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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