A federal judge has rejected a defamation lawsuit filed by right-wing activist Laura Loomer against comedian Bill Maher and HBO after the “Real Time” host suggested she was engaged in a sexual relationship with President Donald Trump.
U.S. District Judge James Moody concluded on Wednesday that Loomer’s complaint had not met the threshold for proving that Maher had acted with actual malice.
Loomer filed the lawsuit in October 2024, after Maher suggested during an episode of his HBO show that she was possibly “in an arranged relationship to affect the election because she’s very close to Trump. She’s 31, looks like his type.”
“We did an editorial here a few years ago … it was basically, who’s Trump f**king? Because I said, you know, it’s not nobody. He’s been a dog for too long, and it’s not Melania. I think we may have our answer this week. I think it might be Laura Loomer,” Maher continued.
AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File
Moody wrote in his decision that Maher’s comments were “made by a comedian, Maher, about a public figure, Loomer, during a time when the environment was rife with jokes and speculation about Loomer’s relationship with President Trump.”
“Because no reasonable person would take the episode as Maher commenting on facts and because Plaintiff has not proved Defendants acted with actual malice, or that she suffered damages, Defendants are entitled to summary judgment in their favor,” Moody continued.
The judge also cited the fact that speculation about Loomer and Trump’s relationship had been happening before Maher made his comments on Sept. 13, 2024.
“The delivery of the episode, by a well-known comedian, in the context of a late-night comedy television series centered around jokes, signaled to viewers that this was not a factual statement about Loomer or concerning Loomer,” Moody wrote.
In a lengthy statement on social media, Loomer described the ruling as “factually and legally wrong.”
“It is beyond the pale for any judge to say that a woman can be accused of having sex with a man and have it be brushed off as ‘a joke’ just because she proclaimed a platonic love for their politics and leadership style. The ruling is totally dishonest and misogynistic. I am a professional woman who simply traveled as a guest to the Presidential debate, and everyone knows Bill Maher was a strong supporter of Kamala Harris and rabidly anti-Trump at the time he made these defamatory comments about me,” Loomer wrote on X.
Loomer had sought more than $150 million in damages from the lawsuit, Deadline reported.
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