The Democratic nominee for Texas governor Beto O’Rourke on March 21 rebuffed legal accusations of defamation from comments he made about Dallas oil executive Kelcy Warren, chairman and CEO of Energy Transfer.
O'Rourke asked for a jury trial and a change of venue to settle the issue.
Kelcy brought the lawsuit on February 22 in San Saba County, located in central-western Texas. Warren owns property in the county.
O’Rourke asked that the venue for the public trial be moved to El Paso County where O’Rourke is a resident, declaring that the change would benefit his campaign against energy industry officials.
In a court filing, Warren’s lawsuit states that “O'Rourke intentionally, repeatedly and widely disseminated his deliberate and defamatory falsehoods through publicly released messages on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites and during speaking engagements and interviews.”
O’Rourke’s campaign for governor has been centered on what has been referred to locally as “Snowmaggedon” the brutal Winter Storm Uri of 2021 and the ineffective performance of energy providers.
Millions of Texans were left without power during Uri and 240 people were estimated to have died.
O’Rourke has accused energy companies of “illegally” profiting after the storm.
Energy companies took in an estimated $11 billion as a result of rate increases due to the storm, according to news reports.
Warren’s lawsuit claims O'Rourke crossed the line of political speech and was “out of bounds.”
“That Warren has committed felonies in a purported effort to profit off the suffering of his fellow Texans are completely out of bounds for any speech, let alone as talking points for a candidate for the governor of the state of Texas.
“The accusations go well beyond the sorts of vague and generalized accusations of political and corporate corruption that are often thrown around; rather they focus on a particular person, a particular campaign contribution at a specific point in time, and a particular purported favor done in exchange for the contribution,” the lawsuit said.
Warren has repeatedly contributed to Republican causes, supporting former President Donald Trump, and Texas Governor Greg Abbott in his campaigns. As a top donor, he gave $1 million to Abbott’s recent campaign during the Republican primary race for governor. Abbott won that nomination by a wide percentage on March 1.
O'Rourke is framing Warren’s lawsuit as “frivolous” and an attempt to “silence” him.
He also claims that Abbott did nothing about the power grid, despite being warned that it was frail and unable to withstand a storm the strength of Uri.
“He [Abbott] got millions in campaign contributions. We got a broken grid and higher utility bill each month,” O’Rourke has said.
But O’Rourke is not talking about what the lawsuit is about, said Energy Transfer representatives.
“Beto O’Rourke clearly hasn’t read or doesn’t understand the lawsuit filed personally by Kelcy Warren.
“Mr. Warren is not interested in barring Mr. O’Rourke from talking about the winter storm. That is the right of every Texan and every American.
“What Mr. Warren is interested in stopping are the irresponsible, defamatory, and highly offensive statements by Mr. O’Rourke related to his donation to Gov. Abbott’s campaign.
“It is the right of every Texan and every American to contribute to the campaigns of candidates they support without being defamed in the process.”
