Fox News Wants Playboy Model’s Defamation Suit Tossed

Fox News has asked a judge to toss a former Playboy model’s defamation suit.

Karen McDougal sued Fox News claiming the network falsely accused her of trying to extort money from Donald Trump, with whom she says she had an affair before he became president.

The suit was brought forward after Tucker Carlson said on his Dec. 10, 2018, show. “Two women approached Donald Trump and threatened to ruin his career and humiliate his family if he doesn’t give them money,” he said. “Now that sounds like a classic case of extortion.”

Bloomberg reports that in a telephone hearing Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan on Fox’s motion to dismiss, Erin Murphy, a lawyer for the network called Carlson’s language “hyperbolic” but said the host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was merely expressing an opinion protected by the First Amendment.

“There’s no statement that a reasonable viewer would understand in this context to state something provably false,” Murphy told U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil.

McDougal’s lawyer, Eric Bernstein, countered that Carlson’s statement was made in an “absolute, journalistic way” and said the conservative host was “trying to destroy the character and reputation of Karen McDougal” in order to help the president.

The judge has not said when she will rule on Fox’s motion to dismiss the case.

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