Murtha Wants Immunity In Slander Lawsuit
He’s claiming that when he erroneously called several of our troops cold-blooded murders he was acting in his official capacity as a member of the House of Representatives.
Which might be a sound and adequate technical legal argument, but doesn’t that sort of make the whole thing worse? It was one thing when they were just come comments he made. But official statements calling our troops murders from a member of Congress?
A Marine who sued U.S. Rep. John Murtha for defamation urged a federal appeals court Tuesday to order the Johnstown Democrat to testify under oath in the case.
An attorney for Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich told the court that he needs Murtha’s deposition to determine how often the congressman made the claim that Marines in Iraq engaged in “cold-blooded murder and war crimes” in the slayings of civilians in Haditha.
A government attorney representing Murtha told the judges that the lawmaker has immunity from the lawsuit because he was acting in his official role as a lawmaker when he made the comments to reporters.
Arguments about whether Murtha must testify was argued before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
I actually think Murtha winning re-election might have been a more depressing outcome from the 2008 elections than Obama getting the White House.
Of course, that hinges upon whether or not Al Franken wins the recount in Minnesota.
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