Shirley Sherrod Slaps Breitbart With Lawsuit—at CPAC

Shirley Sherrod, the former USDA official sacked after a deceptively edited video of her appeared online, has filed a lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart, the man who posted the footage on his web site BigGovernment.com. In a complaint filed on Feb. 11, Sherrod claims Breitbart harmed her reputation and caused her emotional distress and economic damages. Brietbart was served with the suit while attending the recent Conservative Political Action Conference. (After Sherrod was fired from her USDA post, the unedited video of her speaking at an NAACP audience emerged and it became clear she had not – as Breitbart claimed – discriminated against farmers on the basis of race while in a position at the USDA. The White House apologized to for her firing and offered her a chance to return to the agency. She declined.)

Breitbart, apparently hoping to deflect attention from the video debacle, responded with a statement focusing on a lawsuit concerning the USDA and black farmers. Sherrod was a claimant in that suit.

Here is the text of Sherrod’s lawsuit, via TPM.

Related Topics: andrew breitbard, shirley sherrod, Uncategorized
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  • freeinpa

    “The White House apologized to for her firing and offered her a chance to return to the agency. She declined.)”
    .
    It will be interesting to see what economic damages were done to her since she was offered her job back and she declined. And why was their no action over wrongful discharge against Obama adminstration

  • shepherdwong

    Because she was slandered by Andrew Breitbart, not the Obama Administration. It’s hard to put a price on a good name but you wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?

  • http://www.124monkeys.com Sean DeCoursey forgot his password

    Reminds me of the suit against the NFL by the fans who got denied their Superbowl seats. The question isn’t if they’ll win, it’s by how much.

  • afguy

    Apparently she got herself a good lawyer, so the question is not whether or not he’s going to have a big chunk taken out of his a$$, but how deep the bite marks will be when it’s over.

  • afguy

    Oh, almost forgot…
    .
    Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. :-)

  • Paul-no not that one

    I don’t care how much she ends up with.
    .
    However I am really looking forward to a trial and the exposure as to how exactly Breitbart does his “journalism”

  • rdw56

    Breitbart has zero culpability. He did not mis-report anything. He showed actual videotape of her comments. Obama fired her, not Andrew.

  • http://gum0nshoe.wordpress.com gumOnShoe

    About time this happened…

  • afguy

    Paul,
    .
    “It’s not the destination but the journey…”

  • Paul-no not that one

    Then he has nothing to worry about and certainly won’t try to settle.
    .
    Oh yes afguy.

  • apr2563

    Breitbart showed, as is his wont, an edited video with remarks out of context. He is toast.

  • bobcn1

    ‘Breitbart, apparently hoping to deflect attention from the video debacle..’
    .
    Breitbart is very good at deflecting from the truth. He’s made a career out of it.
    .
    BTW — This is a challenge for the righties. When one of your own is caught smearing someone, do you condemn his behavior or do you attempt to protect him by trying to change the subject (‘deflecting’, as KP puts it)?
    .
    And yes, it couldn’t happen to a more deserving guy.

  • afguy

    Yeah, “cropped and edited video footage” is still actual videotape.
    .
    And lies are just “words strung together”.
    .
    Nothing to see here… move along.

  • apr2563

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/new_civil_rights_commission_suspends_printing_of_new_black_panther_report.php?ref=fpblg
    .
    Another Fox, Breitbart fantasy bites the dust.
    .
    New Civil Rights Commission Suspends Printing Of New Black Panther Report
    .
    The commission had been stacked with conservatives during the George W. Bush administration after two Republicans (one on the commission and one who would be appointed seven months later) switched their affiliation to independent to allow for two additional Republicans to be appointed, bypassing a rule which allowed for only four members of a party at any given time.

    The commission had made a single alleged voter intimidation incident during the 2008 campaign their central focus (and the topic of their largest report of 2010). They heard testimony from a conservative former Justice Department lawyer who was hired by an individual who was later found to have improperly politicized the civil hiring process and another DOJ official who was considered by that same Bush-era appointee as “a true member of the team.”

    The Justice Department has called the investigation into their handling of a civil voter intimidation case filed in the final days of the Bush administration “thin on facts and evidence and thick on rhetoric.” They did obtain an injunction against one member of the New Black Panther Party who was caught on video (filmed by an individual working for the local Republican party) carrying a nightstick near the inner city polling place.

  • afguy

    Breitbart showed, as is his wont, an edited video with remarks out of context. He is toast.
    .
    Best he can hope for is that the settlement terms get sealed and a gag order on the litigants.
    .
    Then he can start the grand “comeback” and reputational rehab project.

  • afguy

    …do you condemn his behavior or do you attempt to protect him by trying to change the subject (‘deflecting’, as KP puts it)?
    .
    OhOhOh… I know this one…

  • nflfoghorn

    RDW,
    The next cosmos may buy into your lie.

  • nflfoghorn

    Gridironally (?) speaking, Sherrod is the ’07 New England Patriots (regular season) and BrightBoy is the Detroit Lions (pick a year).

  • http://vidtruth.wordpress.com celebs4truth

    Well, I tell you what…The fact that there is a huge Goldman Sachs banner at the top of the page, and proud partners Huff & Puff Post and AOL News are displayed at the bottom of the page, it’s apparent who runs this “news” site and it ain’t friends of the American people, that’s for sure! …the same general group of people who stole trillions of tax-payer money in the form of “bail-outs” and then vouched for the criminals in the form of disinformation (aka “news”). Wake Up America!.

  • http://erieangel.wordpress.com erieangel

    I hope she soaks him.

  • paulejb

    Didn’t being fired by the White House cause more damage to her reputation?

  • rwbbinla

    What world are you from?

  • http://vidtruth.wordpress.com celebs4truth

    Are you insinuating that Time Magazine is real journalism, as apposed to Breitbart? LMAO! Boy do you have allot to learn!

  • anon76

    Hilarious paule. Woman gets slandered, woman is fired from her job because of slander. Your defense of the slanderer: “didn’t her employer slander her more”.
    .
    Allow me to answer your idiocy with a pair of questions: do you think that she would have been fired if Breitbart hadn’t made the videos? Do you think that there might have been a causal relationship between Breitbart’s slander and her subsequent termination?

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