ISSUES & CASES

June 8, 2010, Washington, DC – Following from her historic victory before the Ohio Elections Commission, Congresswoman Jean Schmidt (R/OH-2) has filed suit for monetary damages against David Krikorian.

TALDF attorneys Bruce Fein and David Saltzman with local counsel Donald Brey had ealier proved to the Ohio Election Commission by clear and convincing evidence that then Independent candidate David Krikorian made three false accusations of criminality against Congresswoman Schmidt with actual malice.

The first lie was that Schmidt was taking money from the Government of Turkey which, he preposterously claimed, "is killing American soldiers." The evidence utterly discredited the assertion. Each of the five Commissioners concluded that Krikorian was lying.
The second malicious lie was that Schmidt received campaign contributions of from a Turkish government sponsored Political Action Committees (PAC) in exchange for her position on a congressional resolution on the Armenian allegation of genocide. The evidence also disproved this lie. It demonstrated that Congresswoman Schmidt has never accepted a campaign contribution in exchange for any official action or inaction; and, that the Turkish Government had neither an overt nor covert sponsored PAC.

The third malicious lie was that Krikorian’s intentional and reckless defamatory falsehoods could be confirmed by examining the website of the Federal Elections Commission.

The decision of the Ohio Elections Commission established that Members of Congress can and do reasonably dispute the Armenian thesis of World War I based on historical evidence. 

Despite being reprimanded by the Commission for these lies, Krikorian has continued to repeat them.  Rep. Schmidt therefore has reached out once again to the TALDF to preserve her reputation and send the strongest signal possible that Krikorian must stop uttering these harmful lies.  She has, therefore, filed suit in state court on eight counts of defamation, seeking $850,000 in compensatory and punitive damages on each count.

The case is.  Jean Schmidt v. David Krikorian and Krikorian for Congress Campaign Committee (Ohio Court of Common Pleas, Clermont County, Case no. 2010 cvc 1217).