Defamation lawsuit over Trump Tower tax cut stories to continue

Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago (WLS/YouTube).

A defamation lawsuit filed against the Chicago Sun-Times over its 2020 reporting on the head of a Republican government agency who allegedly “insisted” on politically motivated property tax breaks for the Trump International Hotel & Tower has been given the green light, according to the newspaper. Illinois Supreme Court. Court this week.

The lawsuit, filed by former Illinois Property Tax Appeals Board executive director Mauro Glorioso in 2021, alleges the Sun-Times “falsely reported” Glorioso’s involvement in President-elect Donald Trump’s successful appeal of a Tower property tax cut Trump since 2011 by $1 million. . The newspaper reported that an anonymous complaint had been filed against Glorioso with “allegations that political motives improperly influence (Glorioso’s) decision-making,” according to state officials.

The complaint says Glorioso, a Republican lawyer from Westchester, Illinois, who was appointed to the Tax Appeals Panel in 2019, “pressured his staff to rule in favor of the President by overruling the staff’s decision to deny Trump any or (tax) refund,” according to the complaint. a Sun-Times report cited and quoted in Glorioso’s libel suit. The allegations also included allegations of Glorioso’s repeated attempts to place Trump’s tax appeal on the board’s agenda, according to the Sun-Times.

“Defendants’ front page publications that ‘Glorioso ordered the agency to approve a $1 million payment to Trump, rejecting a staff report that found no compelling reason to support a refund of the (Trump Tower) tax bill,’ is a material fabrication and is the antithesis of fair reporting and substantive truth,” Glorioso’s lawsuit states, pointing to past decisions by lower courts and the Illinois Office of Inspector General in his favor.

“Defendants ignore the fact that their articles did not require favorable government assistance,” the lawsuit alleges. “They aggressively defamed Glorioso through fabrications disguised as “news,” falsely embellished a baseless anonymous OEIG complaint, and then told readers that Glorioso had in fact engaged in alleged conduct, including unethical behavior not even mentioned in that complaint.”

OEIG investigators looked into the claims about Glorioso and found them to be “baseless,” the Sun-Times reports, but they also determined that Glorioso violated the law and state policy when he deleted files and emails related to Trump’s tax appeal, which ultimately led to his dismissal. in October 2020.

Trump later won his property tax bid in April 2023 when an appeals court ruled that Cook County had overvalued Trump Tower in 2011. The Sun-Times reported that Chicago Public Schools will lose $540,000 in funding due to an appeal victory.

Illinois’ highest court voted unanimously Thursday to continue Glorioso’s legal campaign after the Sun-Times failed to prove Glorioso’s lawsuit was a “baseless” and “retaliatory” Strategic Lawsuit Against Attempted Public Participation (SLAPP). The newspaper filed for dismissal in September, citing the state’s Citizen Participation Act, which seeks to eliminate lawsuits in which plaintiffs “intimidate, harass or punish citizens” for participating in “public affairs.”

“This issue concerns whether the plaintiff’s purpose in bringing the action was to recover damages to his reputation and character or whether the defendant’s sole intent was to limit the defendants’ rights to petition and speak in connection with participation in government,” Judge David Overstreet wrote. in the court’s decision, which upheld the lower court’s decision to approve Glorioso’s lawsuit.

“The court noted precedent that identified two factors at issue in this matter: the timing of the claim and the relationship between the damages sought and the injury,” Overstreet said. “Evaluating these factors, the appellate court concluded that defendants failed to establish that plaintiff’s claim was punitive in nature. Because the decision was found in Plaintiff’s favor on both elements constituting Defendants’ initial burden of proving that the action is a SLAPP, the appellate court affirmed the district court’s decision.”

The attempted dismissal of the Sun-Times came after a Georgia appeals court allowed Glorioso’s lawsuit to continue in May 2023. According to his lawsuit, the court found that “by reviewing OEIG’s complaint, it is clear that Defendants’ reports of the related investigation are not consistent with the ‘gist’ or ‘pathetic’ of the allegations contained therein.”

It also found that the Sun-Times gave the average reader “an erroneous impression regarding the allegations against Glorioso and the OEIG’s investigation into the complaint,” according to Glorioso’s lawsuit.

“This does not mean that we minimize or downplay the importance of the press and other media in our democracy,” Overstreet explained the Illinois Supreme Court decision. “Our jurisprudence is replete with privileges and other defenses designed to protect these interests, many of which remain at issue in this lawsuit. We simply believe that the (Citizen Participation Act) “specifically protects government involvement and does not cover all media reporting on matters of public interest, as Defendants contend.”

In response to the decision, Sun-Times lawyer Damon Dunn released a statement Thursday saying the newspaper was disappointed by the state Supreme Court’s decision.

“(At a time when the First Amendment is under threat, it is disappointing that the court has refused to reconsider its previous opinion and protect speech on matters of public interest under our Illinois statute, especially when other states have recently have taken steps to ensure their SLAPP laws protect news reporting about the conduct of government officials,” Dunn said. “The newspaper hopes to prove that this case has no merit under constitutional protections for the press, which the Court acknowledges are still controversial, and to find out why the Trump Tower tax appeal was decided the way it was.”

When Glorioso first filed the lawsuit, then-Sun-Times interim editor-in-chief Steve Warmbier said the newspaper “stands by the accuracy of the stories” about him.

Glorioso’s attorney, Philip Zisuk, told Law&Crime on Friday that he was not surprised by the latest changes in the law, saying, “The Illinois Supreme Court has carefully reviewed not only the Illinois Citizen Participation Act, but also the defendant’s motions to dismiss under that statute—because and the facts of the case – and correctly determined that the Sun-Times in its articles did not seek favorable government assistance or take any action regarding anonymous complaint that they are allegedly reporting.”

According to Zisuk, the Sun-Times articles were “outside the scope” of the Citizen Participation Act because they were “not intended to obtain government assistance” that is required. “Although the Sun-Times claims that its articles have generated public interest, the Illinois Citizen Participation Act only protects speech or behavior that … is actually intended to obtain government assistance,” Zisuk says. “They went beyond the law.”

Glorioso’s lawsuit now awaits a decision from the Illinois Supreme Court to formally return the case to district court, where it is expected to be sent by December 2026, according to Zisuk.

“Then the district court will have to set a date,” he said.

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Defamation lawsuit over Trump Tower tax cut stories to continue

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