From Bitzer v. Tegna, Inc., decided today by Judge Thomas Varlan (E.D. Tenn.):
Plaintiff alleges that on August 5, 2024, defendants published an article falsely claiming that plaintiff faced "January 6 Insurrection Charges," which he contends implied he was "accused of a grave, treasonous offense akin to seditious conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 2384—an accusation wholly absent from [p]laintiff's record." Plaintiff states that the article used "selective still images" to falsely portray plaintiff as a "violent participant" in the events of January 6, 2021, while ignoring publicly available United States Capitol security footage showing that plaintiff chanted peacefully and "gesturally displaced a stanchion." Additionally, plaintiff maintains that his public "acquittal records" confirm "no convictions, and no insurrection charges, rendering [d]efendants' portrayal patently false." …
Plaintiff sued for libel, but the court dismissed the claim:
