As gatekeepers go, the U.S. Secret Service must be good ones. Hillary Clinton’s protective detail has reportedly rebuffed an attempt to serve the former first lady with legal documents relating to Representative Tulsi Gabbard’s (D- Hawaii) $50 million dollar defamation suit against her.
“I find it rather unbelievable that Hillary Clinton is so intimidated by Tulsi Gabbard that she won’t accept service of process,” Gabbard’s attorney Brian Dunne told the New York Post. “But I guess here we are.”
After trying to serve Clinton at her home in Chappaqua, New York, the server was instructed to deliver the documents to the Washington, D.C., office of her attorney, David Kendall. But Kendall’s firm, Williams and Connolly, also refused to accept the legal papers.
Still a longshot candidate for the Democrat presidential nomination, Gabbard is suing the former secretary of state over remarks Clinton made in October of 2019, in which she referred to Gabbard as a “Russian asset” on a podcast with Democrat political strategist David Plouffe.
“[The Russians are] also going to do third party. I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who’s currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be a third-party candidate,” Clinton said.
“She’s a favorite of the Russians,” Clinton went on. “They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far, and that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not because she’s also a Russian asset.”
Stein has dismissed the comments as “an unhinged conspiracy theory.” But Gabbard has decided to press the matter in court.
While Clinton never mentioned Gabbard by name, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill confirmed to CNN the next day that she was referring to Gabbard.
“If the nesting doll fits,” Merrill said, a reference to Russian nesting dolls.
Gabbard initially responded to the Clinton attack by tweeting: “Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and your powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine.”
Gabbard, who supported Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) over Clinton in 2016 when she served as the vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee, believes that Clinton decided to smear her during her presidential run over that decision. According to the suit, “Clinton — a cutthroat politician by any account — has never forgotten this perceived slight. And in October 2019, she sought retribution by lying, publicly and loudly, about Tulsi Gabbard.”
Gabbard’s defamation suit is probably just a last-ditch attempt by a fringe candidate to gain attention in a race where there is still no clear front runner. Still, Clinton’s refusal to accept the legal documents is interesting. Does Gabbard have a point? More importantly, does her lawsuit have a chance?
“If Hillary Clinton and her allies can successfully destroy my reputation — even though I’m a war veteran and a sitting member of Congress — then they can do it to anybody,” Gabbard wrote in a statement about the lawsuit. I will not allow this blatant effort to intimidate me and other patriotic Americans into silence go unchallenged.”
Hillary has been spouting off on a number of issues ever since her 2016 loss to Donald Trump. The former first lady is never shy about who she calls out, lies about, or otherwise smears. Kudos to Gabbard for standing up to her in a real way. Now, if they can just find a way to serve Mrs. Clinton the court documents.
Photo: AP Images
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects with a primary focus on the ongoing anthropogenic climate-change hoax ancultural issues. He can be reached at [email protected].
