Ahead of former president Donald Trump's appearance in court on Monday for his hush-money criminal case, Donald Trump Jr. lands a legal win in a defamation lawsuit from Don Blankenship.
Trump is facing 34 felony charges regarding falsified business records over hush money payments that were made to former adult film star Stormy Daniels weeks before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels alleged that she had an affair with Trump a decade prior, which he has denied. Prosecutors led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg allege the payments were part of a scheme to stop potentially damaging stories about Trump from becoming public. In addition, prosecutors allege that the former president reimbursed his former lawyer Michael Cohen via a series of checks for "hush money" payments made to Daniels. Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case.
Trump is expected to appear for the trial on Monday.
Meanwhile, a federal appeals panel on Monday ruled that Trump Jr. did not defame Blankenship, who accused Trump Jr. of calling him a "felon".
Blankenship, who served time behind bars in connection with his role in a 2010 coal-mining disaster, sued Trump Jr. for defamation in 2019. Blankenship alleged that Trump Jr. defamed him in a series of tweets that referred to Blankenship as a "felon" despite that he had been convicted of a misdemeanor, not a felony.
Newsweek has reached out to Trump Jr. and Blankenship via email for comment.
"In this case, we consider an appeal by plaintiff Don Blankenship from the district court's award of summary judgment to defendant Donald Trump, Jr on Blankenship's claims under West Virginia law of defamation, false light invasion of privacy, and civil conspiracy. Because we agree with the district court that the record is insufficient to show that Trump, Jr made a defamatory statement with actual malice, we affirm the district court's judgment," said the per curiam ruling.
The years-long dispute between Blankenship and Trump Jr. began online over the West Virginia senatorial election on May 8, 2018. In the immediate lead-up to the election, Trump Jr. urged his followers to vote against Blankenship, who had been a candidate in the race but lost.
"I hate to lose," wrote Trump Jr., "So I'm gonna go out on a limb here and ask the people of West Virginia to make a wise decision and reject Blankenship!"
In a later tweet, which appears to have been deleted since its original posting Trump Jr. responded to a then Twitter user stating, "He's probably never run against a felon."
Both the defamation and false light claims required Blankenship to prove that Trump Jr.'s tweets made false statements of fact. In addition, due to Blankenship being a public figure, he was also required to prove that Trump Jr. acted with "actual malice" in making the false statements.
However, according to the ruling, Blankenship failed to prove "actual malice", leading to Trump Jr.'s legal win.
The ruling comes after Trump Jr. moved to dismiss the defamation and false light claims in 2021. However, the court ruled in Blankenship's favor on the motion, and the case moved ahead toward trial.
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