A Pennsylvania gym owner filed a defamation lawsuit against a local man and a petition company that he claims unfairly maligned him by alleging he partook in the Capitol riot.
Jim Worthington, the owner of Newtown Athletic Club in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, filed the suit on April 16 in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas against Gregory Bullough, who created a petition to get community partners to end their relationships with him on MoveOn.com, which was also named in the suit, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Worthington, a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump who defied the state’s coronavirus lockdown orders, organized three buses to transport 200 people to Trump’s Jan. 6 rally. He traveled separately to Washington, D.C., to attend the rally, and the complaint said he did not go to the Capitol or commit any criminal acts.
Days after the riot occurred, Bullough created the petition calling for the gym’s community partners to “end their partnership and association with this business.” It is still online and has more than 7,000 signatures.
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Bullough, a nature photographer, also posted links to the petition on Facebook, though they were deleted, per the complaint. In February, Worthington’s lawyers sent letters to both Bullough and MoveOn demanding that the petition get removed, but they did not receive a response.
“The freedom of speech that we enjoy in this country does not give an individual or an organization license to make false, malicious and defamatory accusations of criminal conduct that are intended to harm Mr. Worthington and the NAC,” Worthington’s lawyer, Geoffrey Johnson, said in a statement.
Worthington is seeking $50,000 in damages.
Bullough called the lawsuit “meritless” and said it was an example of a “bullying tactic” in the description of a GoFundMe he set up to pay for the legal costs. The GoFundMe has raised more than $2,300 as of Tuesday afternoon.
Trump called supporters to hear him speak on Jan. 6, just hours before Congress was set to certify President Joe Biden’s victory. The former president, who still promotes unsubstantiated claims that fraud cost him the election, urged his supporters to go to the Capitol to express their discontent with Biden’s victory.
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There were violent clashes with law enforcement, while others appeared to walk around the Capitol casually.
Five people died on the day of the riot, though only one was ruled a homicide. Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old Navy veteran, was shot and killed as she tried to breach a door leading to the House Chamber, and the unnamed officer who killed her will not be charged in connection to her death.
