Why? They all reported he was a “convicted felon” who went to prison.
Arpaio alleges that their inaccurate references to his criminal case have hurt his chances at possibly running in 2020 for the US Senate seat formerly held by John McCain.
He was in fact convicted of a misdemeanor.
“As of today, the CNN Broadcast is still available through Defendant CNN’s website and no efforts have been taken by Defendant CNN, Defendant Cuomo, or Defendant Zucker to correct this false statement,” the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said.
The lawsuit also listed a Nov. 5 article from Robillard published by HuffPost, which said the former sheriff had been “sent to prison for contempt of court.”
Arpaio claimed the neither the news outlet nor the reporter have corrected the false statement as of Monday, but an archived web page of the story shows a correction was made on Nov. 13.
“A previous version of this story mistakenly indicated Joe Arpaio went to prison for his conviction,” a correction at the bottom of the story said.
Arpaio also pointed to a Nov. 13 Rolling Stone piece by Stuart, in which he was referred to as an “ex-felon.” The lawsuit acknowledged that Rolling Stone updated the piece to say “Arpaio was convicted of contempt of court, a misdemeanor, in 2017 and pardoned by Trump less than one month later.” The story included an editor’s note at the end noting a change in the story.
“However, as of today, there is no indication on the Rolling Stone Article that a mistake had previously been made in referring to Plaintiff Arpaio as an ‘ex-felon.’ Thus, persons who read the Rolling Stone Article when it falsely referred to Plaintiff Arpaio as an ‘ex-felon’ are not aware that this statement is patently false,” the court documents said.
Arpaio lost the Republican Senate primary in Arizona in August. The lawsuit said he intends to run again in 2020 for the Senate seat vacated by the late Sen. John McCain “as well as pursue other political and governmental endeavors in this district.”
He said his “distinguished” 55-year career and potential 2020 Senate run have been “severely harmed” and his reputation “severely damaged” by the reporting errors. He’s seeking $300.5 million in damages and attorneys fees.
Trump pardoned Arpaio in August 2017, sparing the former Arizona sheriff from a jail sentence after he was convicted of criminal contempt for ignoring a court order that said he could not detain immigrants only because they lacked legal status. Arpaio denied doing so intentionally, but a judge rejected his argument.
Best of luck to Sheiff Joe! We are big fans!
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