An attorney retained by The Chronicle has formally responded to the law firm representing Republican congressional candidate Joe Kent following threatened legal action over an article published in March 2022.
“We hope you will act appropriately — rather than waste your client’s reputation and consume his financial resources with wholly unnecessary and frivolous litigation,” Bruce E. H. Johnson, of the firm Davis Wright Tremaine, wrote in a letter to the firm representing Kent Thursday afternoon.
The response comes after a lawyer for Kent demanded The Chronicle “promptly retract” an article in which Kent appears to agree with an audience member who suggests the U.S. completely restrict immigration for 20 years because of the “demographic replacement that's happening.”
The article in question was published on March 11, 2022, and reports on Kent's town hall two days prior.
“I am sure you would agree that the news media cannot be held liable for accurately quoting Mr. Kent, and providing truthful news coverage about a Congressional candidate’s political views,” Johnson wrote. “If you pursue a litigation against The Chronicle for Mr. Kent, your task will be to establish by clear and convincing evidence that a false statement was made with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard of whether it was true or false.”
Citing The Chronicle’s audio recording from the event in question, and after discovering a video that appears to confirm the account of two journalists present at the event, Chronicle owners Coralee and Chad Taylor and Editor-in-Chief Eric Schwartz have stood by the accuracy of the initial report.
Tuesday night, The Chronicle published audio from the interaction in question and the six-page letter from Kent’s attorney at chronline.com.
“The Chronicle and its reporters and editors are, in effect, the ‘eyes and ears’ of their fellow Washington citizens who are evaluating candidates for public office, including Mr. Kent,” Johnson’s letter reads.
When reached for comment Tuesday night, the Kent campaign released a statement calling The Chronicle's initial report a "smear" and accusing the newspaper of "aiding white nationalists who made defeating Joe their #1 priority." He also characterized the arrival of the Idaho men at the Onalaska town hall in March 2022 as an attempted "ambush" and described them as "aggrieved white nationalists."
The Kent campaign’s request for a retraction came well over a year after the initial report.
The Aug. 28 letter from Kent’s attorney claims Kent's "yeah" response to a question regarding a potential moratorium on immigration due to “demographic replacement” was addressed to an unnamed attendee, not as a response to James's question, though Kent’s exchange lasted well beyond the “yeah.”
“This was clear to those in attendance at the town hall, and we have identified several witnesses who are willing to testify to this under oath,” the Aug. 28 letter says.
The town hall in Onalaska took place while Kent ran an unsuccessful campaign for Washington’s Third Congressional District in the House of Representatives in 2022. Kent has since declared he will again run for the seat — which was won by Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez — in 2024.
Gluesenkamp Perez has repeatedly referenced the article during the 2022 election cycle and the current one. After The Chronicle published an article about the potential lawsuit on Tuesday, Gluesenkamp Perez posted a link to it on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Joe Kent wants to rewrite his white nationalist views by threatening a local paper with legal action,” she wrote Wednesday. “It’s not slander when there’s a tape, Joe. You agreed to a 20-year ban on immigration to combat ‘demographic replacement’ like your weird fanboys wanted.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to recruit and elect Democratic candidates to the House of Representatives, also released a link to the article Wednesday afternoon.
The Chronicle’s letter requests “a litigation hold on all relevant information in Mr. Kent’s possession or control relating to his views on these immigration topics.” The letter also requests Kent disclose “reasonably available information” that is “material to the falsity of the allegedly defamatory or otherwise actionable statement.”
Should Kent’s attorney ultimately file a lawsuit, the letter states The Chronicle’s lawyers would immediately invoke Washington’s Uniform Public Expression Act.
“That act means that the likely result of your client’s meritless lawsuit will be an early dismissal of your complaint with prejudice, and an order to pay our attorneys’ fees, costs, and other litigation expenses,” the letter reads.
To listen to the audio from the March 2022 town hall and read more about the legal threat against The Chronicle, visit https://tinyurl.com/4dk3bw89.
Johnson's full letter to the Kent campaign is below:
