Gennifer Flowers v. James Carville Hillary Rodham Clinton Little, Brown & Co. George Stephanopoulos

Good Law

2002 Daily Journal DAR 12845·310 F.3d 1118·2002 WL 31500990·31 Media L. Rep. (BNA) 1434·2002 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 11079

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitNovember 12, 200200-17299California6,848 words

Opinion

Kozinski, J.

Long after the public spotlight has moved on in search of fresh intrigue, the lawyers remain. And so we find ourselves adjudicating a decade-old dispute between Gennifer Flowers and what she affectionately refers to as the “Clinton smear machine”: James Carville, George Stephano-poulos and Hillary Clinton. Flowers charges that said machine destroyed her reputation by painting her as a fraud and a liar after she disclosed her affair with Bill Clinton. We decide whether Flowers’s claims are timely and, if so, whether they survive a motion to dismiss.

Background and Proceedings Below

In the heat of the 1992 presidential primary campaign, the Star — that ubiquitous supermarket source for celebrity scandal— ran a story claiming that Bill Clinton had carried on an affair with an Arkansas woman named Gennifer Flowers. Clinton and Flowers both denied it at first, but a few days later Flowers (doubtless realizing that honesty is the best policy after all) sold her story to the Star. Clinton continued vigorously denying the allegations and appeared on 60 Minutes with his wife to say they weren’t true. The following day, Flowers responded by holding a press conference where she…

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Parties

Gennifer FLOWERS-
Plaintiff
James CARVILLE
Defendant

Judges

Wallace
Kozinski
Paez

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