Klayman sues ‘so-called journalists’

Two lawsuits have been filed by Larry Klayman, chairman and general counsel of Judicial Watch, for articles appearing in the National Law Journal and the Washington Post over the past three weeks in which the public interest lawyer alleges he was defamed and portrayed in a false light.

The National Law Journal article in question is titled “Clinton’s legal nemesis” and can be found in the publication’s Nov. 8 edition. In it, reporter Harvey Berkman said Klayman had “a willingness to toss iffy claims up against the wall of the courtroom to see what sticks,” and that this tactic was “not a new approach for Mr. Klayman.”

Berkman went on to write of a case in which he alleged Klayman “argued an appeal for three overseas branches of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International … BCCI had forfeited assets to the United States pursuant to a plea agreement under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act,” Berkman said.

But Klayman, in a letter to Patrick Oster, editor-in-chief of the National Law Journal, explained this statement by Berkman was not true.

“Mr. Berkman writes that I represented the Bank of Credit and Commerce International in private practice, to undoubtedly suggest that my prior career involved representing criminals,” said Klayman in his letter. “This is blatantly false, as I represented the government liquidators of BCCI, who were seeking to protect the innocent depositors, who had nothing to do with the crimes of the bank, and whose monies had been seized unjustly.”

According to Klayman’s complaint, Berkman’s article also included false information about Judicial Watch’s Dolly Kyle Browning case
in which Browning alleges Clinton violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act by maintaining control of the presidential office through a pattern of racketeering activity. Browning contends Clinton did this by threatening and intimidating her.

Following the publication of Berkman’s article, Klayman had asked that a retraction and correction of the story be made and that his letter to the editor be published unedited. However, no corrections were made to the Berkman article, and significant portions of Klayman’s letter were edited out before the letter was published in an obscure portion of the journal.

In one part of the letter, for example, Klayman said, “This article (Berkman’s), while quite unoriginal, contains numerous factual errors, designed to defame Judicial Watch and hold me in a false light. In this regard, Judicial Watch does not bring frivolous cases, and has never been sanctioned for doing so.”

In the published version of Klayman’s letter which was posted on the National Law Journal’s website,
his statement was edited to read, “Several inaccuracies in your article need to be addressed.”

Klayman also wrote, “Judicial Watch has had tremendous success in its efforts to address government corruption. … (Neither) Judicial Watch nor I will be deterred by the shop-worn, recycled, redundant, boring and dishonest attacks of those members of the media who, for their own ideological reasons, love the Clintons and what they stand for.”

This section was omitted from the published version of the letter.

Despite Klayman’s allegations against Berkman and the National Law Journal, Stephen Jacobs, Berkman’s attorney, said, “All of their stories are very thoroughly researched. We stand by them in all respects, and as a result, we say that this lawsuit is probably without merit and frivolous.”

Even so, Klayman told WorldNetDaily that even accurate quotes were taken out of context. For example, Berkman quoted Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia, as saying, “The man sued his own mother. When someone will sue his own mother, anything is possible.”

Klayman sued his stepfather and mother to retrieve funds that rightfully belonged to his grandmother.

“(That) I stood up for my dying grandmother when my stepfather took all of her money is to be respected,” said Klayman in his letter to the editor.

Even Sabato, in a letter to Klayman said that his statements were taken out of context.

“I was a reluctant interviewee, as Mr. Berkman will remember, because I made it clear repeatedly that I did not consider myself an expert on you or your work,” Sabato recalled in his letter to Klayman. ” (While) Mr. Berkman quoted me entirely correctly in both cited instances, the quotes were taken somewhat out of context.”

Out of context?

“Regarding the suit against your mother,” wrote Sabato, “I said what I did to underline that you appeared to be a person of principle who would do whatever was necessary to accomplish key objectives. Such motivation tends to instill fear in adversaries, and I noted that in Washington, fear can be an exceptionally useful tool — not least with the corrupt!”

WorldNetDaily contacted Berkman, but he had no comments about the case.

Although Jacobs stated the National Law Journal’s articles are well researched, in his complaint Klayman alleges Berkman’s story was written with the assistance of agents for the Clintons.

Klayman made a similar complaint in another lawsuit filed against David Segal of the Washington Post, stating, “On information and belief, Defendant Segal works and/or consults with lawyers, investigators and other agents of the president and Mrs. Clinton, … in order to obtain information, albeit incorrect, for his “Klayman Chronicles” series.

The so-called “Klayman Chronicles” appears approximately every two weeks in the “Washington Hearsay” page of the newspaper’s Monday business section.

In the Oct. 25 edition of the “Klayman Chronicles,” Segal quoted an anonymous former employee of Klayman as saying Klayman was good at “badgering” talk show producers, ordering his public relations person to give them a call every day regardless of the day’s news.

“He would come in each morning and ask, ‘Who have you called and why haven’t you called?'” Segal reported Klayman’s former employee as saying. “If the show was doing Hollywood that night, he’d say call anyway. If they were doing Tiananmen Square, he’d say, ‘Well, I’m an international lawyer, try to pitch that.’ If there was a school shooting, he’d say, ‘So what? We’re doing important things here.'”

In his complaint against Segal, Klayman strongly denies ever making the statement about school shootings.

WorldNetDaily attempted repeatedly to contact Segal at his office, but phone calls were not returned.

Commenting on his lawsuits against Berkman and Segal, Klayman said, “I believe in a free press. However, when so-called journalists intentionally and maliciously distort facts, acting as dishonest shills and hacks for politicians, they have to answer like everyone else to the legal system. No one is above the law.”