Benghazi: Parents file wrongful death suit against Hillary Clinton
WASHINGTON (Talk Media News) – The parents of two 2012 Benghazi victims filed a lawsuit Monday against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, claiming the former Secretary of State’s decision to use a private email server indirectly placed their sons at risk of imminent harm.
“The Benghazi attack was directly and proximately caused, at a minimum by defendant Clinton’s ‘extreme carelessness’ in handling confidential and classified information,” alleges the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C.
Plaintiffs Patricia Smith and Charles Woods filed the suit on behalf of their sons Sean Smith and Tyrone Woods. Sean was a diplomat and an information officer. Tyrone was a CIA operative as well as a former Navy Seal. Both were killed in the attack.
Two other Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, also were killed in the attack but their families are not party to the suit.
Conservative activist attorney and Clinton nemesis Larry Klayman, who represents Smith and Woods, issued the following statement:
“Having used a secret private email server that we now know was used to communicate with Ambassador Christopher Stevens with confidential and classified government information, and which we also now know was likely hacked by hostile adversaries such as Iran, Russia, China and North Korea aligning with terrorist groups, it is clear that Hillary Clinton allegedly negligently and recklessly gave up the classified location of the plaintiffs’ sons, resulting in a deadly terrorist attack that took their lives.”
Clinton campaign spokesperson Nick Merrill released a statement Monday expressing sympathy with the plaintiffs but said the Democratic nominee has continually been exonerated of any potential wrongdoing.
“While no one can imagine the pain of the families of the brave Americans we lost at Benghazi, there have been nine different investigations into this attack and none found any evidence whatsoever of any wrongdoing on the part of Hillary Clinton,” Merrill said in the statement.”
The plaintiffs also allege Clinton defamed them by claiming the former Secretary of State said the terrorist attack was caused by an inflammatory YouTube video that mocked the Islamic prophet Mohammed. Clinton has since denied ever saying that to the families and has insinuated that their story is false.
Clinton also suggested to multiple interviewers that the plaintiffs did not fully recollect what she had allegedly told them in private, which the suit claims damaged their credibility.
Ms. Smith recently spoke in support of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at the Cleveland GOP convention. There she told the audience: “I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son.”
Sean M. Bigley, an attorney specializing in national security cases, said “the wrongful death allegation has the better chance of succeeding. However, even that claim may be tenuous. The plaintiffs will need to prove causation – namely, that Clinton’s negligence proximately caused the deaths of their sons.”
Bigley said the plaintiff’s must show that their sons died because Clinton was negligent, which he said is difficult to prove.
“The defamation of character claim will be an even steeper climb for the plaintiffs in this suit,” Bigley said. “Clinton’s team will likely frame her public comments as opinion speech, which is generally protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.”
Bigley suggested the suit will likely be dismissed in its entirety, especially, if there is no “smoking gun.”
“I don’t see any movement on this happening before the election. Any judge would be loathe to be seen as interfering in the election,” he said.
Steven H. Levin, who is a former federal prosecutor and now partner at Baltimore based-Levin & Curlett LLC, said the wrongful death claim will likely be dismissed. “Mrs. Clinton, who was acting as a government official, is immune from liability so long as she was acting in her capacity as Secretary of State.”
Levin said the defamation claim also will almost certainly be dismissed.
“While such allegations are more likely to survive a claim of immunity, the challenge the plaintiffs will confront is demonstrating that Mrs. Clinton expressed something other than her opinion,” he said. “Expressing an opinion simply does not come close to the required legal standard necessary to hold someone liable for defamation. So I expect the same result with these counts as I do with the wrongful death claim—dismissal.”
This article is republished with permission from Talk Media News
Bryan is an award-winning political journalist who has extensive experience covering Congress and Maryland state government.
His work includes coverage of the election of Donald Trump, the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and attorneys general William Barr and Jeff Sessions-as well as that of the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Larry Hogan, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bryan has broken stories involving athletic and sexual assault scandals with the Baltimore Post-Examiner.
His original UMBC investigation gained international attention, was featured in People Magazine and he was interviewed by ABC’s “Good Morning America” and local radio stations. Bryan broke subsequent stories documenting UMBC’s omission of a sexual assault on their daily crime log and a federal investigation related to the university’s handling of an alleged sexual assault.