Donald Trump Jr. loves to run his mouth and toss around insults aimed at others. But a slur he used against a West Virginia Senate candidate is now one step closer to costing him a lot of money.
Remember the name Don Blankenship? He’s the former head of Massey Energy, which owns and operates coal mines in the Mountain State. He ran for the Republican nomination to be a U.S. Senator from West Virginia and had previously been convicted of conspiring to violate safety standards at the Upper Big Branch mine, which is a misdemeanor.
When someone mentioned on Twitter that Blankenship would face a tough race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, Junior replied:
“He’s probably never run against a felon.”
Even though Don Jr. later deleted the tweet, the damage had been done, and Blankenship filed a lawsuit for defamation. Why? Because he’s not a felon. He was convicted of a misdemeanor. Granted, that’s slicing it thin, but the suit was filed.
Since then, attorneys for Don Jr. have been trying to have the defamation suit dismissed, but a judge ruled recently that the suit will move forward, according to Jan Wolfe of Reuters:
The defamation suit is still active and will proceed, according to the judge. That’s bad news for Junior because he could be facing a considerable financial judgment if he’s found guilty of having defamed Blankenship.
Of course, Junior and other members of his family are also facing criminal charges for their allegedly illegal actions regarding the Trump Organization, including possibly being indicted for tax fraud and other financial crimes.
It was a bad day for Donald Trump Jr. And it appears he’s facing many more bad days in the months ahead.
