Kevin O’Leary is being sued for defamation by a group fighting data center construction in Utah after the “Shark Tank” star went on Fox News and claimed some of the individuals involved with the opposition have ties to China, according to The Hill.
The suit, which was also against Fox News, was filed on Wednesday in Utah federal district court by Alliance for a Better Utah, Elevate Strategies, Gabrielle Finlayson and Josh Kanter. It claimed that Kanter and Finlayson “suffered devastating reputational harm, significant economic losses, severe emotional distress, and ongoing threats to their physical safety” after O’Leary went “on the attack” during his Fox News appearance.
“Fox was instrumental in O’Leary’s defamatory smear campaign, putting him on air to attack Plaintiffs five times in three weeks,” the suit read. “Despite O’Leary’s inherently unreliable claims, and his clear lack of support for them, Fox repeatedly invited O’Leary onto its programs and allowed him to broadcast his false accusations to millions of viewers without any qualification.”
Fox News Media said in a statement regarding the lawsuit, “Fox News Media publicly corrected the record on every program where on-air guest Kevin O’Leary’s comments were made, all of which was extensively publicized. We will vigorously defend against this lawsuit.”
