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Former Masters champion Patrick Reed dropped his federal defamation lawsuit in Texas and re-filed it shortly after in Florida on Wednesday — taking aim at more on-air talent and a newspaper company.
Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee is a carryover from the first case filed in August, but the new civil complaint also includes hosts Damon Hack, Shane Bacon, and Eamon Lynch.
The Golf Channel, an original defendant, is now listed along with Golfweek and its parent company, Gannett, as targets of Reed in the Wednesday filing.
Reed is again represented by Larry Klayman, a right-wing activist attorney and founder of Judicial Watch. Reed is seeking in excess of $750 million as he did in the first suit.
“Defendants have conspired … with the PGA Tour, its executives, and [Commissioner Jay] Monahan to engage in a pattern and practice of defaming Mr. Reed, misreporting information with actual knowledge of falsity and/or reckless disregard of the truth,” the lawsuit alleges.
The new filing lists 42 claims that range from civil conspiracy to defamation, 34 more than the original.
The complaint alleges the defendants have “actively” targeted “Mr. Reed since he was 23 years old, to destroy his reputation, create hate, and a hostile work environment for him, with the intention to discredit his name and accomplishments.”
The Athletic was the first outlet to report the new lawsuit.
Defamation lawsuits are typically legal longshots. They have to prove “actual malice,” meaning what was published or broadcast was knowingly false and that the defendants acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
Klayman — who filed a lawsuit in Florida to keep Barack Obama off the 2012 ballot — was suspended from practicing law for 90 days by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals after the body ruled he “flagrantly violated” ethics rules in 2020.
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