Sherrod Attorney: Breitbart Suit Seeks To Be Deterrent

Shirley Sherrod's longtime attorney said her pending lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart will seek to be a deterrent for future defamation actions, adding that it is not about money.

But Rose Sanders, who has known Sherrod for decades, stressed that it will seek monetary damages because "that is all right-wing capitalists understand."

"It will be a legal deterrent," Sanders, who is based in Selma, Ala., told me Friday. "That when you destroy a person's reputation, you will pay the consequences."

Sanders' comments follow Sherrod's announcement Thursday that she plans to sue Breitbart, who posted an excerpt on July 19 of a speech that Sherrod gave in front of a NAACP group. He claimed that the clip showed her engaging in racism.

The tape resulted in Sherrod being fired July 19, but she was later offered a new USDA job after it became clear that Breitbart's video had taken her statements out of context.

Several defamation lawyers have told Media Matters that Sherrod could have a good case against Breitbart.

Sanders said Friday: "It is clearly a case of defamation of character. He took an edited, out-of-context clip and posted it and caused her to lose her job. When you create a situation that caused victimization, you are the primary person responsible."

Sherrod could not be reached for comment Friday. Sanders said Sherrod is in the process of putting together a legal team to advise her on the case, with Sanders likely "adding support" to the team.

"There is a collection of people advising her," Sanders said, declining to name them. "She is putting together a legal team and the purpose is to show that people cannot perpetuate lies and destroy people's reputations without legal consequences."

Sanders said she did not know when or where the lawsuit would be filed or how much would be sought in damages: "She has to make sure it will be filed in a place where people are just."

Sanders also criticized Tom Vilsack, Agriculture Department secretary, whose department forced Sherrod to resign July 19, then offered her a new job: "Vilsack has not been disciplined and he should ask the president to discipline him. In his own way, he discriminated against Ms. Sherrod."