Rep. Mike Rogers' Staff Insists They Never Said I Defamed Him... And Then Reveal The Reporter They Apparently Never Said It To

from the um... dept

I'm beginning to wonder if Representative Mike Rogers needs slightly more competent staffers (note to my new friends in Mike Rogers' office: that is a statement of opinion). As you may recall, earlier this week, I wrote about how a reporter had told me that, when he questioned Rogers' staff about certain comments I had made concerning Rogers' views and actions on cybersecurity and internet surveillance, they had claimed that my comments were defamatory and that they "could" sue me for them. That got a little bit of attention, because, you know, when a former FBI agent, now elected Congressman, who's in charge of the House Intelligence Committee, makes an implied threat designed to intimidate a critic... that's really not a very good thing.

The folks over at The Daily Dot followed up on the story, and asked Rogers' staff to comment on the situation, and got back something rather incredible:

Kelsey Knight, a spokesperson for Rogers, denied that anyone on the congressman's staff made such comments.

"Nobody made this claim," Knight told the Daily Dot.

Knight went on to identify the reporter the comments were supposedly made to, Christopher Behnan of the Livingston Daily. Behnan would not comment on this story, but referred the Daily Dot to Rogers' chief of staff, Andrew Hawkins. The Daily Dot reached out to Rogers' office for a direct comment from Hawkins, but had not received a response as of late Thursday afternoon.

It's important to note that, throughout this process, I never once named Behnan or his publication. I didn't even mention to my own colleagues who the reporter was. So... Rogers staff did not claim that my comments were defamatory to Behnan... but they magically know that Behnan is the reporter they didn't make the claim to? How does that work?

Filed Under: defamation, mike rogers