Steve Schmidt, co-founder of Project Lincoln, announced on Saturday that the political action committee will take legal action against Rudy Giuliani, former President Donald Trump and Steve Bannon because of defamatory comments about the Capitol riot.
During an interview on Friday at Steve Bannon’s War room podcast, Giuliani claimed that the insurgency of pro-Trump supporters was organized by a person linked to the Lincoln Project.
“I don’t know if I can reveal his name,” said Giuliani. “Because we have it from anonymous sources. But he has worked in the past to [Utah Senator Mitt] Romney. “
MSNBC presenter Ali Velshi aired a segment of Giuliani’s appearance on the Bannon podcast on Saturday morning. “That was crazy nonsense that Rudy Giuliani said, even Steve Bannon was shocked,” he said, before asking Schmidt for comment.
Schmidt said he was “thrilled” that Giuliani made the comments and announced his intention to sue the lawyer, his client and Bannon for defamation.
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“Well, what’s amazing about it, Ali,” said Schmidt in reference to the clip, “is that in the end, when you cut when Bannon says, ‘you’re killing me, you’re killing me,’ because Steve Bannon knows that will also be sued by us, and he is. “
“The same will happen with Donald Trump, who is a client of Rudy Giuliani, and Rudy Giuliani is acting under his command. But look, it is very difficult to sue someone for defamation or slander in the United States. But our lawyers are telling us that Rudy is fine understood the line, so we are excited about it, “he explained.
Shortly after Bannon’s podcast aired on Friday, Schmidt tweeted, “We’re going to sue Rudy Guiliani. I’m so happy that I’m literally choking.”
On Saturday afternoon, Project Lincoln made public a letter sent to Giuliani by his legal team entitled, “Your false and defamatory statements about Project Lincoln (with notice to preserve all relevant documents).”
“You betrayed your country when you got up to speak on January 6, 2021 in front of a loud crowd that your client, former President Donald Trump, invited to stay a short distance from the United States Capitol. You promoted false theories of conspiracy. You said the presidency was ‘stolen’, “the letter said. “You stated without warning or proving that my client, The Lincoln Project, ‘planned’ the January 6 uprising ‘in order to hurt’ Donald Trump.”
The Lincoln Project lawyers concluded that Giuliani had “committed a classic act of defamation” and gave the lawyer until Wednesday, February 3, “to fully retract and publicly apologize to the Lincoln Project”.
It is currently unclear when or how the Lincoln Project will take legal action against Bannon and Trump.
Newsweek contacted Giuliani’s representatives and the Lincoln Project for comment. This story will be updated with any answer.