Texas Judge Overseeing Elon Musk and X’s Defamation Case Against Smear Website Media Matters DENIES Their Motion to Dismiss
Texas Judge Reed O’Connor who oversees Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the smear website Media Matters for America denied their motion to dismiss the case on Thursday.
Media Matters submitted its dismissal request in early March on the grounds that X’s case lacked “personal jurisdiction,” an “improper venue” and the “failure to state a claim.” O’Connor dismissed all of those claims, according to court records.
Judge Reed O’Conner dismissed all three complaints by Media Matters for America (MMFA).
Engadget reported:
The lawsuit filed last year in federal court seeks damages from the media watchdog group over “maliciously manufactured” images reporting that X’s platform placed Neo-Nazi and white-nationlist content next to advertisers’ images causing advertisers to flee the site. The images Media Matters used weren’t manufactured but X’s claim is that its dogged pursuit of ads’ placement with racist content by using certain accounts to bypass ad filters caused irreparable harm to the social media giant.
X owner Elon Musk’s other companies are located in Texas but aren’t directly connected to the Media Matters lawsuit. X closed its San Francisco offices earlier this month and owner Elon Musk announced in July that X’s headquarters will move to Austin. Tesla moved its headquarters from California to the Lone Star State in 2021 and SpaceX from Delaware earlier this year when a judge threw out a $56 billion pay package from the state.
However, in dismissing the personal jurisdiction argument, O’Connor noted that two of X’s “blue-chip” advertisers like AT&T and Oracle included in Media Matters’ coverage are based in Texas. He cited the landmark 2002 Internet defamation case Revell v. Lidov quoting the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ assertion that “if you are going to pick a fight in Texas, it is reasonable to expect that it be settled there.”
Elon Musk cheered the news, responding to George Behizy’s tweet on X “LFG!” … or Let’s F**king Go!
LFG!! https://t.co/FRDdOfvbYn
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2024
This comes after news last week that far left Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama appointee out of Washington DC, ordered Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to halt his investigation into Media Matters for America.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sent The Gateway Pundit a response to the ruling.
“Make no mistake: Media Matters ran to a DC Court in order to get out of complying with our investigation. The DC Court’s order effectively shuts down Missouri courts. We will be appealing the decision, and look forward to resuming our investigation on behalf of all affected Missourians.”
As we reported earlier, Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama donor, is famous for his persecution of Trump supporters.
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