The Lincoln Project has announced their plans to sue Rudy Giuliani for defamation after he falsely linked the organization to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection during an interview with Steve Bannon.
Giuliani suggested that an individual from The Lincoln Project planned the riot on Bannon’s podcast on Friday and suggested that the members are “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” When Bannon asked who was connected to the organization, Giuliani refused to reveal his sources which led Bannon to challenge him, according to The Huffington Post.
“This is why we’re getting blown up all the time. You can’t throw a charge out there like that and then say, ‘I got a double-secret-probation guy who I can’t mention!’” Bannon said to Giuliani.
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Steve Schmidt, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, a conservative group of former Republicans opposed to former President Donald Trump, told MSNBC’s Ali Velishi during an interview that he’s “thrilled” to sue him and Bannon.
“At the end of it when you cut it off when Bannon goes, ‘You’re killing me. You’re killing me.’ Because Steve Bannon knows he’s going to get sued by us also, and he is,” Schmidt told Velishi. “And so will Donald Trump who is Rudy Guiliani’s client.”
On Twitter, Schmidt tagged fellow Lincoln Project members Rick Wilson, Stuart Stevens, and Reed Galen and wrote the message: “We are going to get to sue the s— out of Rudy Giuiliani. I’m so happy that I’m literally choked up.”
Schmidt continued to issue a series of tweets, even retweeting The Lincoln Project’s legal response to Giuliani, which he remarked, “To Rudy with love.”
“I have written a prayer ‘Dear God, please let it be the case that our lawyers see what I see. May be soon be on our way to suing Rudy Guiliani. @ProjectLincoln. I’m pretty sure that since Rudy is Trump’s lawyer we may get to sue Trump also. Praise be,” Schmidt said on Friday.
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On Jan. 6, the organization issued a statement condemning the riots at the U.S. Capitol. “While our democracy has been under attack since Donald Trump was elected in 2016, today’s domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol highlights just how much Trump and his enablers have entirely abandoned the principles of the Constitution and the Republic.”
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