Defamation Suit Against NYT Filed in Richmond

As outlined in this article from the Virginia Lawyer's Weekly, lobbyist Vicki Iseman filed a $27 million defamation suit against the New York Times on December 30th in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The suit stems from a front page article published by the NYT last February that indicated that Senator John McCain had a relationship with Iseman in 1999. The VLW article summarizes the allegations in the complaint:

The suit alleges the article falsely communicated that Iseman and McCain had an illicit “romantic” relationship in 1999 when he was chair of the Senate Commerce Committee and she was a lobbyist representing clients before Congress.
Richmond lawyer W. Coleman Allen Jr. and Rodney A. Smolla, dean of the Washington & Lee law school and a First Amendment scholar, represent Iseman.
…
The suit claims that Iseman suffered damage to her mental, emotional and physical health. The lawyers noted that she continues to work as a lobbyist in Washington, for a firm based in Arlington. . . .
The piece was published at the height of the primary season last winter, and, the suit states, the defendants knew that it would “reverberate around the world.”
The suit continues, “In their attack on Senator McCain, the [defendants] were willing to sacrifice Ms. Iseman as acceptable collateral damage, recklessly indifferent to the avalanche of scorn, derision and ridicule Ms. Iseman would suffer.”
…
Allen noted that after the Times article was published in February, Iseman had anticipated filing a lawsuit that would be “the source of her vindication.” She specifically waited until the national election was over, he said, adding that she did not want any suit she filed to influence the result.

The VLW has a copy of the complaint posted here.