Former President Donald Trump has been making headlines for his frequent appearances in courtrooms. Now, his son, Donald Trump Jr., has scored a big courtroom win of his own.
Coal executive Don Blankenship took issue with Trump’s tweet describing him as a “felon,” and he sued for defamation.
A lower court ruled in favor of Trump… and on Monday, and appeals court kept the pro-Trump ruling in place.
Blankenship served time for a misdemeanor, although not a felony. He went to prison for conspiring to violate safety standards at a a mine before a 2010 explosion killing 29 men.
Trump Jr. called him a felon in a May 2018 post on social media.
At the time, Blankenship was running for U.S. Senate in West Virginia. He lost the Republican primary to Attorney General Patrick Morrissey, with incumbent Democrat Joe Manchin winning the general election.
Blankenship sued Trump Jr. and 16 other media figures, including organizations like CNN and Fox News.
The lower court acknowledged these outlets’ failure to meet journalistic standards, but it still abided by the “actual malice” standard for defamation. “The record fails to show that Trump, Jr. published his statement with actual malice,” the court said at the time.
Blankenship claims to have since registered as a Democrat.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, left in place a lower court’s ruling in West Virginia against Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy.
The litigious Blankenship has tried to appeal his conviction, only to see his appeal denied by the very same court of appeals. He has since tried to bring his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Horn editorial team and the Associated Press contributed to this article.