Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) is going through a defamation lawsuit filed by one of many 4 males she has publicly accused of sexual abuse in a ground speech, in a case that might take a look at the authorized protections members of Congress have for his or her official conduct.
The South Carolinian took to the Home ground final month to accuse her ex-fiance, Charleston businessman Patrick Bryant, and three different males of rape, intercourse trafficking and nonconsensually filming intercourse acts together with her and others.
Now Brian Musgrave, one of many different males Mace named on the Home ground, is suing the member of Congress for defamation.
Within the lawsuit, filed in federal court docket in South Carolina, he categorically denied the allegations leveled in opposition to him by Mace — saying he was not current throughout any alleged occasions Mace described and didn’t “movie” or “incapacitate” anybody — including she “and her workforce destroyed the lives” of Musgrave and his household.
The suit seeks an unspecified award for compensatory and punitive damages to be decided by a jury “adequate to impress upon the Defendant the seriousness of her conduct and to discourage such related conduct sooner or later.”
Mace’s workplace didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The authorized motion additionally seeks to carve out an exception from the speech or debate clause of the Structure, which supplies a authorized protect for members of Congress for acts taken as a part of their roles as lawmakers, together with “any Speech or Debate in both Home.”
The clause “doesn’t rework the ground of Congress right into a sanctuary for defamation, nor does it defend Congresswoman Mace’s extra-Congressional defamatory statements surrounding her speech,” Musgrave’s go well with asserts.
His lawsuit additionally factors to a few of Mace’s actions exterior the Home ground, together with a draft of the speech circulating and posts on social media.
In her February speech, Mace claimed she was talking out as a result of South Carolina Legal professional Common Alan Wilson had declined to behave upon proof of abuse that she stated she offered. However the top state prosecutor said Mace’s accusations of improper conduct by his workplace had been “categorically false,” claiming the workplace had “no information” of Mace’s alleged assault till her speech on the Home ground.
Wilson and Mace are each contemplating bids for South Carolina governor within the state’s 2026 election.
Shortly after Mace’s public speech, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed that it’s investigating Bryant. Bryant has categorically denied Mace’s allegations.
