Newsrooms reported this week that the shooter in the 2011 Tucson, Ariz., massacre had brought a lawsuit against one of the survivors of his deadly rampage, former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, but the story is reportedly a hoax.
The legal filing against the former congresswoman is likely the handiwork of notorious pro se trickster Jonathan Lee Riches, the same man who duped the press with phony lawsuits involving Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and Jacksonville Jaguars first-round pick Blake Bortles, according to popehat.com contributor Adam Steinbaugh.
The lawsuit involving the Tucson shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was first reported by an Arizona CBS and Fox News affiliate, Tucson News Now. The story grew from there, and was soon re-reported by several newsrooms, including the Hill, the Washington Examiner, and Foxnews.com.
The story, however, is reportedly a hoax.
“The ‘Jared Lee Loughner’ lawsuit against Gabby Giffords is another Jonathan Lee Riches prank,” Steinbaugh said. “It’s not real and he keeps owning the media.”
Riches, who pleaded guilty in 2003 to charges of wire fraud and conspiracy, and was handed a 125-month federal sentence, comes from a suburb in Philadelphia. His many phony legal filings are regularly postmarked from the City of Brotherly Love.
Riches is set to be released from federal custody on May 10, and he has been serving the last months of his sentence in a halfway house in Philadelphia, according to the Smoking Gun.
“The lawsuit says Loughner is imprisoned in Minnesota, but it’s postmarked from Philadelphia,” Steinbaugh noted. “This is what [Riches] does. He’s somewhere between crazy and genius.”
This is what he does. He’s somewhere between crazy and genius. pic.twitter.com/k4QEMbezAh
— Adam Steinbaugh (@adamsteinbaugh) March 24, 2016
When the Loughner lawsuit story first appeared Wednesday afternoon on Tucson News Now’s website, it bore the headline, “Loughner suing Giffords, federal government for $25 million.”
But a federal court official told an NBC News affiliate in Phoenix Wednesday that the Tucson shooter never filed a lawsuit, and said the story came from a prisoner in Philadelphia.
The Tucson News Now story has since been amended to reflect the legal challenge is likely a fake, and the report now carries a headline reading, “Loughner lawsuit against Giffords, federal government could be hoax.”
Fox News, which originally ran the story with the headline, “Jared Loughner sues his victim, Gabrielle Giffords, seeks $25M,” has since updated its story to reflect that suit is likely a hoax. Likewise, the Hill, which originally ran a story headlined “Man who shot Gabby Giffords sues her for distress,” has amended its story so that the headline now reads, “Report: Gabby Giffords lawsuit is a hoax.”
Other newsrooms, including the Arizona Republic and Examiner, have also updated their respective articles, and issued retractions.
CBS.com, however, simply deleted their story from their website. There is no trace of the article titled “Tucson gunman sues former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.” CBS followed up eventually with an entirely new article, headlined “Gunman’s ‘lawsuit’ vs. Gabby Giffords could be hoax: report.”
Here’s the lawsuit:
Loughner files lawsuit against Giffords by Tucson News Now
