Stephanopoulos seeks dismissal of Flowers’ lawsuit

Kim Smith

Tuesday, June 20, 2000 | 10:04 a.m.

A former adviser for President Clinton has asked that a defamation lawsuit brought against him by alleged presidential flame Gennifer Flowers be dismissed.

Attorneys for George Stephanopoulos, in court documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court, said Flowers' lawsuit against him should be dismissed because it lacks merit and none of the alleged acts took place in Nevada.

Flowers, a Nevada resident, filed a lawsuit in November against James Carville, Clinton's 1992 campaign manager, and Stephanopolous. The lawsuit claims that the two "have continuously libeled and slandered" Flowers since 1992 and cited Stephanopoulos' 1999 book "All Too Human: A Political Education" and a series of interviews on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Stephanopolous and Carville appeared on the TV show to discuss stories that appeared in Star magazine concerning Flowers' allegations of a lengthy affair with the president.

Flowers added Hillary Clinton to the lawsuit in January, accusing the first lady of orchestrating three burglaries of her home, defaming her and invading her privacy.

Because none of the acts Stephanopolous is alleged to have committed took place in Nevada, the statute of limitations has run out, his attorneys claim.

The attorneys, Pat Lundvall and Andrew Gordon of Reno and Laura Handman and Matthew Leish of Washington, D.C., claim that the former adviser's book is a personal memoir that offers an "accurate accounting of historical events."

"It is opinion. It is not defamatory; it is not false. It is a neutral report of newsworthy events and reliance on and republications of what reputable news organizations have reported cannot constitute actual malice," Stephanopolous' motion states.

The motion goes on to state, "to the extent plaintiff is correct that she is widely viewed as 'dishonest, contemptible and unsavory,' the references in the book pale by comparison to plaintiff's own very public and very graphic proclamations of an adulterous affair."