Harming someone's reputation in speech with falsehoods is known as slander, and doing the same thing in writing is known as libel (which sometimes includes speech as well). Any ordinary citizen who can claim to have suffered harm as a result of such defamation may sue. So why aren't politicians suing all the time? Because an exception is made for "public persons" (a category that includes most other celebrities as well), who must also prove that any such statement was made with "reckless disregard for the truth". And although, even by that standard, public persons are defamed all the time, most of them have decided that it's better to just grin and bear it.
The article was full of lies and defamations.
accused the newspaper columnist of defamation of character
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In a video missive put out earlier Tuesday, Sharpe attacked Buzbee’s credibility directly and promised to file a defamation lawsuit against the admittedly aggressive attorney and the OnlyFans posting Jane Doe.—Dominic Patten, Deadline, 24 Apr. 2025 Hov not only sued her for defamation, but also her attorney Tony Buzbee.—Armon Sadler, VIBE.com, 24 Apr. 2025 Baldoni has denied the allegations and accused Lively of defamation and extortion.—Brendan Morrow, USA Today, 24 Apr. 2025 The lawsuit further accused BCPS of retaliating against Jensen's expression of his First Amendment rights, violating his 14th Amendment rights and defamation.—Audrey Conklin, FOXNews.com, 24 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for defamation
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