TALLAHASSEE — Incoming Senate President Ben Albritton and a political committee he leads have appealed after a Lake County circuit judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that a Senate candidate was defamed by a mail piece linking him to China.
Lawyers for Albritton and the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee on Tuesday filed a petition at the 5th District Court of Appeal contending that Circuit Judge Dan Mosley erred in denying a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Republican candidate Bowen Kou.
Kou is running in the Aug. 20 primary for an open seat in Central Florida’s Senate District 13. Albritton and the committee are backing one of his opponents, Rep. Keith Truenow, R-Tavares.
The lawsuit stems from a mail piece that the committee sent to voters that said, in part, “Why are Chinese donors (from all over the country) flooding Bowen Kou (Lake County state Senate race) with cash?” Kou, a businessman who moved to the United States from China, alleges in the lawsuit that the mailer communicated that he is “controlled by the Chinese Communist Party and takes money from China.”
But in the petition filed Tuesday, lawyers for Albritton, R-Wauchula, and the political committee said Kou’s lawsuit “materially misrepresented the clear language in the mailer, essentially rewriting it.”
“Boiled down, this case is about political speech made during an election by a political entity,” the petition said. “If the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects one thing, it’s political speech.”
Mosley on July 29 issued a two-page order denying the motion to dismiss, saying that the lawsuit “is legally sufficient to set forth a cause of action for libel.” The order did not provide a more-detailed explanation.
The mail piece, which was sent in late June, also included a quote from a Politico report that referred to, “The ‘absolute explosion’ of foreign interference in U.S. politics.” It also included a list of Kou campaign donors, including people of Chinese descent, and said, “80% of Kou’s donations are from outside of Florida.”
The mailer included a graphic with arrows pointing to other parts of the United States and to China.
The lawsuit, filed June 28, argued that the “mailer is false and defames plaintiff by misleading voters into believing that Mr. Kou has received political donations from China. Plaintiff Bowen Kou has never received political donations from China, Chinese citizens, or members of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Also, it said the “mailer falsely states that the American Republicans of Chinese descent who have donated to Mr. Kou are living in China and are members of the Chinese Communist Party. The mailer does so by displaying a large arrow pointing to the nation of China on a map with an overlaying flag of China, a nation ruled solely by the Chinese Communist Party.”
But in Tuesday’s petition, lawyers for Albritton and the political committee disputed what they described as “conclusory” allegations made in the lawsuit.
“There’s a clear conflict between Mr. Kou’s complaint and the mailer. … According to Mr. Kou, the mailer states that he ‘received political donations from China.’ But the mailer makes no such claim. On the back of the mailer, only donors from Illinois, California, Indiana, New Jersey, Michigan, Texas, North Carolina, and New York are listed. None are from China,” said the petition filed by Tallahassee attorneys Mohammad Jazil and Michael Beato.
Also, the petition said the graphic with the arrows “doesn’t state (or even suggest) that Mr. Kou has accepted donations from any resident of China.”
“To bring this point home, if Mr. Kou’s allegations are correct, then he can point on the mailer to at least one listed donor, who donated at least one dollar, who also has a Chinese address,” the petition said. “The problem is that he can’t. The mailer contains no such information whatsoever on that point.”
Kou, whose campaign website says he owns nine grocery stores, has put about $1.14 million of his money into the race, a state database shows. Kou, Truenow, Republican Cheryl “CJ” Blancett and Democrat Stephanie Dukes are running to replace term-limited Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Eustis, in the district, which is made up of Lake County and part of Orange County.
Kou is represented by lawyer Anthony Sabatini, a former state House member who is chairman of the Lake County Republican Party.
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