Jacob Ogles
A Judge has tossed a lawsuit filed by former Senate candidate Bowen Kou against the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee (FRSCC).
Circuit Judge Dan Mosley granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of the FRSCC, ruling that Kou failed to prove the FRSCC defamed him with a series of ads criticizing Kou for accepting donations from Chinese nationals.
“The only evidence he presented at summary judgment was five declarations — from himself, campaign workers, and his employees — which contained inadmissible hearsay, conclusory statements, and statements made without personal knowledge,” the Judge wrote.
“None of them established the falsity, actual malice, or damages defamation elements, nor did they prop up Mr. Kou’s main contention in this case: that FRSCC’s mailer against him falsely asserted that individuals with links to China donated to his campaign. The five declarations contain no evidence on the citizenship of Mr. Kou’s donors, no evidence on FRSCC’s purported actual malice in creating and publishing the mailer, and no evidence on what damages Mr. Kou’s alleging in this case (business, reputational, campaign donation, or otherwise).”
Kou lost a Republican Primary last year to now-Sen. Keith Truenow, who had the endorsement of the FRSCC. Kou filed his lawsuit against the political committee and Senate President Ben Albritton after mailers were sent to Senate District 13 voters that included outlines of the home states for a number of Kou’s donors, as well as an outline of China. The mailer also included numerous listings of donors with ethnically Chinese names.
The FRSCC said the decision by the Judge affirms free speech principles and the validity of political criticism.
“The FRSCC will not be silenced by lawfare tactics deployed by losing candidates. We go to great lengths to ensure the accuracy of our campaign messaging because it’s the right thing to do, and because voters deserve to know who candidates really are, not just who they claim to be,” said FRSCC spokesperson Erin Isaac, who said all facts in the mailer were based on publicly available information.
“Our campaign research, data and tactics adhere to the strictest moral, ethical and technical standards of accuracy, a winning formula that has resulted in a GOP Senate Super Majority. Now more than ever, candidates tied to nations that seek to destroy the United States must be exposed.”
The candidate hired former Rep. Anthony Sabatini, a Republican who now serves on the Lake County Commission, as his attorney.
While Kou, the owner of an international grocery chain, decried the mailer as racist, the Judge said the facts of the case did not prove defamation. Kou himself was born in China and made his story of fleeing persecution of Christians by the communist government a central part of his campaign.
“As to the identity of his donors, Mr. Kou lacks information on this front,” the Judge noted.
“He doesn’t know the citizenship status of most of his donors. But he admits the following: that ‘at least one of’ his ‘donors was, or is, a citizen of China’; ‘at least one of’ his ‘donors has resided in China’; and ‘at least one of’ his ‘donors was born in China,’” Mosley wrote. “He also identified that one of his donors, Lijie Zhu, who’s his cousin, is from China and is only a green card holder, meaning that she’s a Chinese citizen, not a U.S. citizen.”
In other words, the claims in the advertisements were fundamentally true.
“Falsity — not a false impression left by true statements — is how Mr. Kou pled his case,” the Judge wrote.
Mosley also noted that Kou’s businesses are doing well, even “booming” by his own account in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel after the election.
Mosely SJ Order by Jacob Ogles on Scribd
