Former opponent wins defamation suit against Chicago Ald. Lamont Robinson over attack ads

CBS News

6 days ago

It's no secret that political campaigns can get nasty — but how far is too far?
Chicago Ald. Lamont Robinson (4th) and his team are under fire for mailers and texts during the campaign for the 2023 election. A jury just awarded his opponent more than $1 million in damages in the trial for her defamation lawsuit.
Ebony Lucas said her campaign to be alderman of the 4th Ward on Chicago's South Side was going well in the winter of 2023 — but then she got a call.
"The biggest thing is I was hurt," Lucas said.
Just as early voting began, Lucas said her office got flooded with inquiries about campaign material sent to homes from the 4th Ward Democratic Organization. One mailer called her a "bad landlord," and featured a picture of a rat.
Meanwhile, a text message sent to voters asked, "How can we trust her?" and listed several unpaid bills.
"I mean, the things that they were saying were horrible — and they weren't true!" Lucas said.
Lucas said a simple fact check would prove the attacks were false. CBS News Chicago took her up on that.
One allegation involved an IRS tax lien amounting to $18,139. The website for the Cook County Clerk's office said the lien was released almost two years before the election.
"They put citations at the bottom of the mailer to different websites to make it seem like the information was true," Lucas said, "and if you looked at the citations, the citations didn't say what they said."
Robinson went on to win the aldermanic election. But his campaign, and the 4th Ward Democratic Organization, were not victorious when it came to the defamation lawsuit Lucas filed over the mailers and texts.
"You sent out false information about me to 33,000 people — and that's a lot of people," said Lucas, "and now, I still have a business to run, a community to live in."
A jury considered that impact, and awarded Lucas a combined $1.475 million.
"It's not an insignificant amount," said Robinson. "It sends a message. It sends a message that politics cannot be like it is."
No one answered the door at the 4th Ward Democratic Committee office on Thursday, and Ald. Robinson was unavailable for an interview.
But statements from both the politician and his campaign partners said they will be appealing the court decision.
Robinson himself released this statement:
"This lawsuit has always been politically motivated — we will be appealing the decision. Residents of the 4th Ward voted for me because they knew I would fight for them, and that's exactly where my focus remains. With critical funding for programs like Job Corps just being cut, I'm focused on supporting the students who will be impacted and strengthening public safety efforts in our community. My priority is addressing the real challenges we face, not engaging in political theater."
This statement was issued by the Lamont Robinson for Alderman Committee and the 4th Ward Democratic Organization:
"While we respect the jury system, we cannot allow this decision — which fundamentally changes defamation law as it applies to political organizations — to stand. Under established legal standards, a candidate must prove that a statement was made with actual knowledge of its falsity and with actual malice.
"We are committed to providing voters with accurate, well-sourced information so they can make informed decisions. In this instance, we relied in good faith on information provided by our researchers and reported by credible media outlets — none of which were sued for publishing the same material.
"We strongly disagree with the verdict and believe it reflects an unprecedented misapplication of the law. Importantly, the jury made no finding that we knowingly or intentionally made any false statements — the threshold required for a defamation claim. We believe this type of verdict for a good faith reliance upon publicly available and published information is in error, unsupported by law, and will be reversed.
"We remain confident in our position and will be appealing the ruling."
So what will Lucas do with her more than $1 million? She said she will not be using it for a new campaign, and she is done running for election.