It has been a while since we last checked in with controversial preacher Bradlee Dean’s legal crusade against Rachel Maddow. Almost a year since Dean filed suit, a judge recently ordered him to pay Maddow’s associated legal fees.
Dean and his ministry, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, sued Maddow and MSNBC last July for slander and false light, seeking damages in excess of $50 million. At issue were comments Dean made on his radio show:
“Muslims are calling for the executions of homosexuals in America. This just shows you they themselves are upholding the laws that are even in the Bible of the Judeo-Christian God, but they seem to be more moral than even the American Christians do, because these people are livid about enforcing their laws. They know homosexuality is an abomination … If America won’t enforce the laws, God will raise up a foreign enemy to do just that.”
Maddow, according to Dean, took those comments out of context, claiming that Dean advocated killing homosexuals. Dean vehemently denied that he advocates violence against gays.
Fast forward to June 25. Judge Joan Zeldon of Superior Court in Washington, D.C., ordered Dean to pay the defendants’ “fees and costs in the amount of $24,625.23 within thirty days.” The defendants include Maddow and MSNBC, and also erstwhile local news source The Minnesota Independent and one of its reporters, Andy Birkey. MSNBC did not comment on the case.
Dean first made waves on these pages after he delivered a prayer on the Minnesota House floor, during which he questioned President Obama’s faith. Jake MacAulay, who co-hosts the Sons of Liberty radio program with Dean, was not immediately available to comment.
h/t City Pages.
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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