'America's toughest sheriff' refiles defamation case against Rolling Stone and Huffpo

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Joe Arpaio, known as "America's toughest sheriff" for his enforcement of federal immigration policy in Maricopa County, Arizona, has refiled a defamation complaint against the Huffington Post and Rolling Stone for falsely describing him as a "felon."

A complaint raising similar concerns was recently dismissed for lack of "specificity," and his lawyer, Larry Klayman, promptly brought the new action.

The case in federal court in the District of Columbia seeks $300 million in damages for "general defamation, defamation per se, defamation by implication, tortious interference with prospective business relations and false light."

It names two individuals, Kevin Robillard of the Huffington Post and Tessa Stuart of Rolling Stone.

TRENDING: 5 months since Capitol Police killed Ashli Babbitt, now Donald Trump demands to know one thing

Arpaio served Maricopa County from 1993 until 2017.

The defendants are accused of targeting Arpaio with "two separate defamatory publications that falsely refer to and defame him per se as a convicted felon who was sent to prison."

"Both articles contain false, defamatory factual assertions concerning plaintiff Arpaio, as well as actionable false and misleading intertwined publications of fact and alleged opinion," the complaint states.

The statements were "carefully and maliciously calculated to damage and injure plaintiff Arpaio both in the law enforcement community – which is centered in this judicial district – as well as with the Republican establishment and donors in order to prevent him from successfully running for U.S. Senate in 2020 or another public office as a Republican."

The filing explains Arpaio was considering such a move at the time.

Robillard claimed, in the Huffington Post, that Arpaio was "sent to prison for contempt of court."

"Plaintiff Arpaio has never been sent to prison from contempt of court," the filing states.

Then Stuart "falsely and with reckless disregard for the truth referred to plaintiff Arpaio as an 'ex-felon.' Plaintiff Arpaio has never been convicted of a felony," it says.

Such "false and fraudulent statements – including outright lies in the form of false or misleading facts or false and misleading statements mixing opinion and fact – in the articles, which were widely published in this judicial district, nationally and internationally, have severely harmed plaintiff Arpaio's reputation and caused him financial and emotional damage. In sum, the specific false and misleading publications taken as a whole constitution defamation and/or, at a minimum, false light," the complaint states.

There was "actual malice" because the defendants "knew or had reason to know that what they published was false."

In fact, a judge convicted Arpaio of only a misdemeanor with regard to a dispute over enforcement of immigration laws. And President Trump issued a pardon for that conviction.

Previously, a judge found: "The court is especially bothered by the conduct of the Rolling Stone and Huffpost defendants, whose errors were not even substantially true. The media is entrusted with the important responsibility of reporting on issues of great public importance so that the American people can make informed decisions at the ballot box and elsewhere. Mistakes, honest ones or otherwise, often cause much harm to public figures like Mr. Arpaio and diminish voters' abilities to impartially weight the issues that affect them."

Arpaio's lawyer, Klayman, is founder of Freedom Watch and a former federal prosecutor.