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Far-right Florida conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed Islamophobe Laura Loomer might need a new attorney for her defamation lawsuit against HBO and comedian Bill Maher.
Larry Klayman, founder of the conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, was suspended for two years by the Florida Supreme Court over conflict-of-interest issues and other violations while representing a woman in a 2010 sexual harassment lawsuit in Washington, D.C.
“The suspension will be effective 30 days from the filing of this opinion so that Klayman can close out his practice and protect the interests of existing clients,” the Florida Supreme Court ruled in an order handed down November 6.
The order appears to jeopardize Klayman’s representation of Loomer, whose $150 million defamation lawsuit is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
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Loomer alleges that Maher defamed her on his weekly show, Real Time with Bill Maher, when he suggested that she and President Donald Trump were having an affair last year.
At the time, Loomer had been spending a lot of time in Trump’s inner circle, even attending a September 11 memorial alongside the president despite once claiming the attack was an “inside job.” New Times also noticed the two were frequently in each other’s company.
On September 14, 2024, Maher discussed the pair on his show, mocking Loomer for having claimed that Taylor Swift was in an “arranged relationship” with now-fiancé Travis Kelce in order to influence the upcoming presidential election.
“I think maybe Laura Loomer’s in an arranged relationship to affect the election,” Maher continued. “Because she’s very close to Trump, she’s 31, looks like his type. We did an editorial here a few years ago…. It was basically, ‘Who’s Trump fucking?’ Because I said, you know: It’s not nobody. He’s been a dog for too long, and it’s not Melania.
“I think we may have our answer this week,” Maher went on. “I think it may be Laura Loomer. I’m just saying.”
Loomer filed suit in Sumter County Circuit Court a month later, calling Maher’s speculations about a sexual relationship between the far-right activist and the president “false, misleading, and defamatory.” (The case was moved to federal court in November 2024.)
“Ms. Loomer has never engaged in sexual relations with President Donald Trump,” the complaint reads. “There is not a shred of credible reporting or evidence or suggesting otherwise. Defendant Maher had no basis in fact to make this statement. He simply fabricated it for attention, notoriety, ‘clicks,’ and profit for himself and defendant HBO, his employer.”
Old D.C. Sanctions Lead to New Trouble in Florida
The Florida Supreme Court’s ruling against Klayman is unrelated to the Maher allegations. It arose from two suspensions imposed by the Washington, D.C., Court of Appeals in 2020 and 2022. In August 2023, the Florida Bar filed a formal complaint for reciprocal discipline against Klayman following the D.C. suspension orders.
According to the referee report cited in the order, Klayman, who founded the conservative activist group Judicial Watch in 1994 and served as its in-house counsel until 2003, represented three plaintiffs in their lawsuits against the group without seeking consent. The D.C. Court of Appeals suspended his law license for 90 days in June 2020. The second D.C. suspension order stemmed from his handling of a 2010 sexual harassment lawsuit against Voice of America on behalf of employee Elham Satakai.
He was suspended for 18 months in September 2022.
Florida’s highest court found that Klayman violated conflict-of-interest rules and standards regarding client communications after he expressed strong feelings for Sataki and continued to work on her behalf despite her instruction to dismiss the case.
“…The record includes writings from Klayman in which he expressed to Sataki that his emotions had rendered him nonfunctional as a lawyer,” the ruling reads. “The record also includes evidence that Klayman continues to represent Sataki after he made such statements, that he continued to act on her behalf and did not withdraw representation after she tried to terminate his services, and that he wrote and published articles revealing confidential information about her case even after she terminated representation and stopped contacting him.”
Klayman argued that the D.C. Court of Appeals failed to provide notice and an opportunity to be heard; however, the Florida justices found that he had participated in every stage of the proceedings. Additionally, he claimed that the disciplinary proceedings “failed to establish proof of guilt of the charged misconduct.”
“He insists that they were sham proceedings initiated as retaliation for his conservative watchdog efforts against prominent liberal figures,” the justices wrote. “But whatever the circumstances may have been, the violations found in the D.C. Court of Appeals’ 2020 and 2022 suspension orders are not without support in the record.”
“The Fat Lady Has Not Sung”
When New Times emailed Klayman for comment, he initially responded, “Get back to u in a few hours. I have had to sue your leftist rag in the past, so be advised that you best wait for my comment and then report accurately.” (He lost that lawsuit.)
As promised, Klayman followed up with a statement, along with comments from his attorney.
“You can use this comment,” Klayman wrote. “Publish all of it. I will also call shortly. Govern yourself accordingly.”
“The opinion of the Florida Supreme Court does not contain one cite to the record. It would appear to have been written in haste without supporting evidence as a result, but simply a supercopy of what the Referee J. Lee Marsh had written, which itself was adopted in whole from the Florida Bar disciplinary counsel, who essentially copied it from the District of Columbia suspensions,” he wrote in his email.
“Bottom line, I will be moving for a rehearing en banc to obtain a reasoned decision based on the actual record, and if necessary, file for a petition for writ of certiorari and/or writ of mandamus before the U.S. Supreme Court, based on a denial of constitutional rights. It is no longer in doubt that the District of Columbia disciplinary apparatus has become weaponized against conservative and Republican activist lawyers who support President Trump, and the wholly deficient and unsupported cursory findings of the Florida Supreme Court, which relies on what occurred in the District of Columbia, is the unfortunate and unjust result of this.”
Attorney Robert Klein wrote that he is “profoundly disappointed by this decision.”
“While Mr. Klayman and I differ significantly in our politics, I agreed to assume his representation before the Supreme Court based upon my belief that he had been denied due process before the District of Columbia Bar, and to emphasize that Florida had ample grounds to disregard the decision of the District of Columbia Bar, particularly since Florida had declined to prosecute Mr. Klayman when identical claims were brought against him in Florida over 10 years ago, and given what appeared to be the highly partisan prosecution of conservative activists in the District of Columbia,” he wrote.
As promised, Klayman followed up with a phone call to reiterate that the Florida Supreme Court’s ruling was “highly flawed,” but conceded that if the order were to stand, he would have to step away from Loomer’s case. In that event, he said, he has other lawyers ready to take over.
“The fat lady has not sung,” he said.
Not One to Sit Out a Lawsuit
In a separate case, Klayman is representing U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina in her lawsuit against the Charleston International Airport, following a heated confrontation with airport police and TSA agents last month. CNN reported that the incident report in that case stated that Mace cursed at police officers and berated them, saying they were “fucking incompetent.”
The State, a Columbia, South Carolina daily, reported, “Klayman, who currently has his law license suspended in two jurisdictions, has spent much of his legal career filing lawsuits against everyone from the Clinton family to the Ayatollah of Iran and even his own mother.”
Not to mention Miami New Times and Phoenix New Times.
