Fox News reports, Hillary Clinton’s legal team has finally accepted legal documents in connection with a $50 million defamation lawsuit filed by 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaii congresswoman’s lawyer told Fox News on Thursday night.
“We look forward to finally moving forward on the merits” of the case, said Brian Dunne, lead attorney representing Gabbard, who is suing over Clinton indirectly referring to her as a “Russian asset” during an October interview.
After three attempts to rebuff the legal papers, a lawyer for Ms Clinton has reportedly been served the papers that will allow 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard’s case to proceed, Dunne said.
“Today, after the media picked up this story, Ms. Clinton’s lawyer changed course and agreed to accept service,” Dunne told Fox News in a statement. “We would have preferred that Ms. Clinton just accept federal judicial process in the first instance, without having to be called out by the press, but in any event, Tulsi Gabbard’s lawsuit against her will now be moving forward.”
Fox News left written and phone messages late Thursday for Clinton attorney David Kendall of the Washington law firm Williams & Connolly LLP but did not receive a response, according to Fox News.
On Thursday Gabbard’s lawyers said they were turned away by the Secret Service and later by Clinton’s attorney when they tried to deliver the paperwork in person at her residence in Chappaqua, New York.
Dunne told the New York Post that Clinton was ‘so intimidated by Tulsi Gabbard that she won’t accept service of process’.
At a campaign event in Portsmouth, N.H., on Thursday evening, Gabbard hadn’t yet heard that Clinton’s team accepted the legal papers.
“The latest that I’ve heard is that it’s what’s been reported, that she has refused to be served the documents related to the lawsuit,” Gabbard told reporters. “I think this is unfortunate, you know. No one is above the law. This lawsuit is about accountability – not just for me but for all service members and for the American people.”
Gabbard is suing Clinton for $50million over an October 2019 interview in which Clinton suggested that Gabbard was the ‘favorite of the Russians’, and was being groomed as a third-party candidate for the 2020 general election in November.
Clinton never mentioned Gabbard by name, when asked to confirm whether the former first lady was referring to Gabbard, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill responded at the time, “If the nesting doll fits … ” a reference to popular Russian dolls.
Nick Merrill last week described the lawsuit as “ridiculous.”