[guest post by Dana]

Oh, irony. GOP consultant Cheri Jacobus decided she didn’t need to wait for Donald Trump to “open up those libel laws,” and instead filed her own defamation lawsuit against both Donald Trump and Corey Lewandowski:

The suit, brought in New York County by communications strategist Cheri Jacobus, seeks $4 million in damages as well as unspecified punitive damages and court costs. It alleges that Trump and campaign manager Corey Lewandowski falsely and knowingly impugned her professional reputation in retaliation for her criticisms of Trump’s performance as a candidate.

…

The complaint stems from comments Lewandowski and Trump made in late January and early February following Jacobus’ January 26 assertion on CNN that Trump, in interviews and debates, “comes off like a third grader faking his way through an oral report on current affairs.”

The next day, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Lewandowski said that Jacobus “came to the office on multiple occasion trying to get a job from the Trump campaign, and she wasn’t hired clearly she went off and was upset by that.”

As a result of her criticism, Trump followers went after Jacobus. The lawsuit states that:

“The attacks by Trump’s followers were laced with sexual degradation and pornographic vulgarities.”

Further, it also claims that Jacobus was “depicted in numerous graphic illustrations as an appropriate victim for rape and sexual assault”. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.

Again Jacobus criticized Trump. This time it was for his complaints about how “he does not get enough credit for self-funding his campaign”.

Needless to say, Trump handled her continued criticism of him like a third grade pro:

“@cherijacobus begged us for a job. We said no and she went hostile. A real dummy!”

In response to Jacobus’s cease and desist letter to Trump and Lewandowski, Trump again revealed the character and temperament we all look for in our presidential hopefuls:

“Really dumb @CheriJacobus. Begged my people for a job. Turned her down twice and she went hostile. Major loser, zero credibility!”

Interestingly, according to Jacobus, it was the Trump campaign that reached out to her, not the other way around. Although she met with Lewandowski several times, she did not end up working for the Trump campaign. It appears that as a result of Lewandowski’s “boorish behavior,” Jacobus felt working with him might be “too difficult”.

Here is the lawsuit, including the exhibits. And then there’s this little nugget from the filing:

Dylan Byers provides the response from Fox regarding Lewandowski’s claims that Ailes offer to help Trump’s campaign:

Legal Insurrection provides an interesting statement from one of the attorneys representing Jacobus who expresses confidence in their suit:

The facts of this matter are detailed in the complaint filed today with the New York Supreme Court. These same facts have been the subject of extensive scrutiny by the press, and are well known and documented. While libel suits are generally difficult to prove, in this matter it is indisputable that the statements of Trump and his agents which are the subject of this lawsuit are defamatory. Donald Trump far exceeded the legitimate bounds of free expression in his false attacks on Ms. Jacobus. He should be held accountable for his actions. We have no doubt that the defendants will hurl a host of technical objections at this filing, but we are confident that the complaint has already addressed the technical hurdles often confronting the victims of defamation.

p.s. to add to Trump’s woes, his national field director quit today.

–Dana

Another reminder of how sharply Justice Scalia is missed.

Adam Liptak is doing the Linda Greenhouse thing they do at the New York Times, where they identify a Justice who deeply cares about public opinion (like Anthony Kennedy or, here, John Roberts), and send him a message about how much more statesmanlike it would be to leave the leftist policy in place.

Hey, it worked before.