Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is dropping her $50 defamation lawsuit against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In a court filing on Wednesday, Gabbard’s lawyers wrote, “While they remain certain of the action’s legal merit, they are just as certain that this new COVID and post-COVID world require them to focus their time and attention on other priorities, including defeating Donald Trump in 2020, rather than righting the wrongs here.”
Earlier this year, Gabbard brought the multi-million dollar lawsuit against Clinton for comments where she called the Hawaii Congresswoman a “Russian asset.”
During an appearance on the “Campaign HQ” podcast in October, Clinton said of Gabbard, “They are also going to do third party again. I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who is currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She’s the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her, so far.”
While Clinton did not explicitly mention Gabbard, her spokesperson later confirmed that the former secretary of state was referring to Gabbard.
In her lawsuit, Gabbard claimed that Clinton was a “cutthroat politician” who wanted to get revenge on Gabbard for supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary.
Gabbard alleged that by calling her a Russian asset, Clinton “got exactly what she wanted.”
“She harmed her political and personal rival’s reputation and ongoing Presidential campaign, and she started a damaging whisper campaign based on baseless, but vicious, untruths,” the lawsuit read.
Gabbard was running in the 2020 Democratic presidential until she suspended her campaign in March and announced her support for former Vice President Joe Biden.
“Today, I’m suspending my presidential campaign, and offering my full support to Vice President Joe Biden in his quest to bring our country together,” Gabbard said.
She added, “It is clear that Democratic Primary voters have chosen Vice President Joe Biden to be the person who will take on President Trump in the general election.”