KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — East Tennessee U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett is seeking to throw out a defamation lawsuit filed against him by a Kansas man about whom he tweeted.
Lawyers for the Republican Burchett this week filed the motion in Kansas federal court, where Kansan and Kansas City Chiefs fan Denton Loudermill sued Burchett.
The defense attorneys argue the federal court in Kansas doesn't have jurisdiction and so shouldn't bothered with the complaint. What if anything Burchett did has nothing to do with the state of Kansas, under which the court there could take up the case, they argue in their motion.
"Mr. Burchett's reposting of an image of (Loudermill) already seen by millions of people did not place (Loudermill) in a false light and certainly does not establish jurisdiction," the motion states. "Neither Mr. Burchett's February 15th post nor his retraction made on the 19th of February were directed at the state of Kansas in any way. Further, those posts were not intended or expected to cause injury in Kansas."
Further, they argue, Burchett lives in Tennessee and a federal court in Kansas doesn't have jurisdiction over him.
Loudermill sued Burchett over a false tweet the East Tennessean made that featured a photo of Loudermill.
After the Chiefs won their second consecutive Super Bowl in early February, the team took part in a Valentine's Day celebratory parade, for the second year in a row, in downtown Kansas City. It ended near Union Station, an icon for downtown.
Gunfire broke out. A woman was shot and killed; others were wounded. Several have since been charged.
Loudermill, who lives in Olathe, Kan., part of the metropolitan area, had nothing to do with the shooting. He was taking part along with hundreds of thousands of fans in the post-Super Bowl celebration.
In the ensuing melee, as Kansas City police sought to identify the source of the gunfire and who might be involved, they grabbed Loudermill, cuffed him and sat him down on a curb. Loudermill said in his lawsuit he'd been moving too slow as police tried to clear the scene and ended up being detained.
Someone took Loudermill's photo; it ended up on social media. It was distributed widely on Twitter.
Many photos of people down at Union Station were taken that day and dispersed because of the high-profile nature of the event.
In a matter of minutes, when Kansas City police determined there was no further reason to keep Loudermill because he'd done nothing wrong, they uncuffed him and let him go on his way.
Burchett, who tweets often about congressional business and other events he sees in the world, saw the photo of Loudermill, dressed in red and sitting on the curb, and wrote a factually false message with it.
The message: "One of the Kansas City Chiefs victory parade shooters has been identified as an illegal alien."
Loudermill was neither a shooter nor an "illegal alien." He never was charged.
Burchett later tweeted he'd gotten that information from "multiple incorrect news reports". He's not provided evidence of what "news reports" he was tweeting about. Burchett said he was removing the post.
The Kansas man has, as a result of Burchett's actions, suffered mental anguish, sleeplessness and anxiety, the lawsuit states. He's been humiliated and has endured insults, the lawsuit states.
Loudermill seeks "an award of punitive or exemplary damages in an amount sufficient to punish (Burchett) or deter (Burchett) and others from like conduct in the future."
