Why We Filed a Defamation Lawsuit Against Lauren Boebert

Hypocrites be aware.

By David B. Wheeler

I’m David Wheeler, President of American Muckrakers and co-host of the MUCK YOU! podcast.

Every day, we expose politicians who hide behind “family values” while dodging accountability. Our fight against U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert is a case study in why we do this and why we need you, our small-dollar donors, to keep us in the ring. We don’t have billionaires tossing millions our way. We scrape by on $5 and $10 & $100 donations, singing for our supper every day. Below are my thoughts today about the lawsuit we filed against Lauren Boebert in 2023, why we did it, and why your support is our lifeline.

Exposing Hypocrisy, One Truth at a Time

At American Muckrakers, our mission is simple: give voters the truth about candidates’ character and policies. In 2022, during Lauren Boebert’s reelection campaign for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, we uncovered allegations that exposed her hypocrisy. Sources like Jessica Spaulding, a former employee, and Joshua Bartlett, a former friend, shared claims backed by recorded calls and texts that Boebert worked as a paid escort, had two abortions, and used illegal drugs, including methamphetamine (complaint filed in US District Court, Denver, Case No. 1:23-cv-014463, ¶ 48 if you want to look it up). We posted this evidence online and shared it with the news media, not to smear her, but to hold her accountable.

“Our mission is to provide accurate information about political candidates… to enable voters to make informed decisions.” — American Muckrakers’ guiding principle

We’re a North Carolina nonprofit and FEC-registered 527 Super PAC, built on transparency. We vet sources rigorously, consult lawyers, and work with accredited accountants to stay compliant. But when we published our Boebert allegations on June 14, 2022, she didn’t counter with facts. She attacked us.

Boebert’s Smear Campaign

Boebert went on a media blitz to silence us. On June 16, 2022, she told The Sean Hannity Show’s 15 million listeners that I “knew [the allegations] were false” because a source allegedly said they were “made up”. She repeated this lie on Tomi Lahren’s show, to Fox News’ Houston Keene, and in over 42 news articles, claiming our PAC, supposedly funded by “far-left Democrat donors,” spread “completely fabricated” statements. Her lawyer even threatened our donors with “substantial legal liability” on June 17, 2022, a tactic I’ve never seen in 40 years of political work.

The fallout was devastating. I received nasty-gram emails, texts, and verbal death threats from her supporters. Our donations, averaging $15,315 a month from 4,270 donors nationwide, plummeted 92%, from $27,372 in June 2022 to $4,420 by September and even further decline today. Donors, fearing lawsuits, canceled contributions, and my salary dropped from $5,375 to $2,700 a month and now barely $1,500. By May 2023, we’d lost an estimated $275,519 in yearly revenue.

Boebert’s goal was clear: crush our ability to work and intimidate our supporters into silence and it almost worked.

Fighting Back in Court

We refused to back down. On June 8, 2023, we filed a lawsuit against Boebert in U.S. District Court in Colorado, alleging defamation, trade libel, tortious interference, and violation of our First Amendment rights. We argued her false claims and donor threats were a deliberate attempt to chill our free speech, protected under Colorado’s anti-SLAPP law, C.R.S. § 13-20-1101, which safeguards public participation.

Boebert tried to dismiss the case, but on June 9, 2024, U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathryn A. Starnella ruled in our favor. She found we had a “reasonable likelihood” of proving Boebert’s threats against our donors were improper, allowing our tortious interference claims to proceed. The judge affirmed our reporting was protected political speech under the First Amendment, addressing public issues like Boebert’s hypocrisy.

While our defamation claims were clear and the Judge said we were likely defamed five times, she dismissed the claims for insufficient evidence, the ruling was a clear win against her bullying tactics. In July 2024, we settled, with both sides covering their own legal fees. I can’t share the terms, but we walked away victoriously, but no one wrote a check.

The court exposed Boebert’s attempts to silence us and upheld our right to speak truth to power. If we had the money to fight on, we would have gone further. But, at the time we literally had no funds. Contrast our pennies with all the money spent on MTG’s challenger, Marcus Flowers, who spent $16 million of donors fund on a race he lost by 35%. Imagine if we would have had $250,000 to spend on continuing our lawsuit against Boebert and getting her into a court room. But that’s another post for another day.

Why Your Moral and Financial Support Matters

American Muckrakers isn’t bankrolled by millionaires or billionaires. We rely solely on small-dollar donors, average folks giving $5, $10, or $20 and sometimes $100 or more. We have had several supporters step up with larger donations but those have all trailed off post-election 2024 and through today. From June 2021 to September 2022, 4,270 donors gave us $245,045.63, averaging $31.84 per donation. That’s what keeps our lights on, funds our research, pays the lawyers and legal battles against politicians like Boebert. When her attacks slashed our revenue, we felt every lost dollar. Donors like you are our lifeline

“We sing for our supper, every day, and spend donations wisely.”

Your contributions fuel our investigations, from tracking down sources to posting evidence online. They cover legal fees when we’re forced to fight in court. They let us keep the Muck You Podcast running, where we break down political grift for thousands of listeners and highlight the good guys and gals. Without you, we’d be silenced, and that was exactly what Boebert wanted.

The Stakes Are Bigger Than One Lawsuit

Boebert’s threats weren’t just about us. They were an attack on your right to support causes you believe in. Colorado’s anti-SLAPP law exists to stop powerful figures from using lawsuits to intimidate, and our case proved it protects grassroots groups like ours. But these fights drain our limited resources. We can’t do it without you. Boebert barely won in 2022, and our work helped make that race close (546 votes). Voters are waking up, but the powerful will keep fighting dirty. Your small donations, $25 here, $100 there, give us the power to keep digging, exposing, and holding them accountable.

Join the Fight

We need you now more than ever. Donate $10, $50, $100, or whatever you can to keep us in the fight. Subscribe to this Substack for updates on our investigations. Tune in to the MUCK YOU! Podcast (our latest is with Anthony Scaramucci and David Jolly) to hear the latest on political hypocrisy. Every penny, every share, every listen counts. Together, we can protect our democracy and ensure the truth isn’t silenced.

Keep raking the muck!

David B. Wheeler
President, American Muckrakers