Rudy Giuliani says he intends to sue Tucker Carlson for defamation, accusing the conservative commentator of falsely implicating him during a recent interview with Hunter Biden about the controversy surrounding Biden’s laptop.
Giuliani, the former New York City mayor, announced his intentions during a Sunday appearance on Newsmax, where he lashed out at both Carlson and Biden over their discussion of how material linked to the Hunter Biden laptop first reached the public.
“He personally defamed me, Hunter Biden did,” Giuliani said. “And so did Tucker.”
Giuliani said he was especially incensed by a portion of Carlson’s interview that addressed whether individuals connected to Israel had played a role in circulating material purportedly obtained from Biden’s computer.
Carlson said during the interview that while he was working at Fox News, individuals with connections to Israel approached him and attempted to interest him in allegations involving purported material from Biden’s computer.
Speaking on Newsmax, Giuliani said he understood Carlson’s exchange with Biden as effectively agreeing with the suggestion that Giuliani and President Donald Trump had been acting on behalf of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In other words, he agrees that I was and Trump was an agent for Bibi,” Giuliani said.
“He can go to hell!” Giuliani added.
Giuliani emphatically rejected that characterization and insisted that he had never acted on behalf of Netanyahu or any other foreign figure.
“I wasn’t an agent for anybody but myself and the United States of America and the man I was representing.”
Giuliani then made clear that he was considering legal action against Carlson.
“I’m gonna sue him!” Giuliani said.
When asked whether he was serious about pursuing the lawsuit, Giuliani responded, “Absolutely.”
The confrontation stems from the explosive controversy that erupted shortly before the 2020 presidential election over material recovered from a computer associated with Hunter Biden and subsequently reported by The New York Post.
Giuliani played a major role in bringing the material into public view, providing the Post with a copy of the computer’s hard drive, which became the source for a series of reports about its contents.
Biden has challenged portions of the conventional account surrounding the laptop. During his conversation with Carlson, he claimed that material ultimately attributed to the computer actually originated from multiple sources, including cloud accounts that had been hacked.
Any lawsuit filed by Giuliani would likely hinge on whether Carlson’s statements concerning Giuliani’s alleged involvement in the laptop episode meet the legal standard for defamation.
{Matzav.com}
