Whatever Became of Don Blankenship's Defamation Lawsuit? A Tiny History of Coal Baron Hubris

**For this update on some recent political history that got personal for me, I tried out a new A.I. platform named Perplexity, which aggregates sources from the entire Web. Much of the language under "Key Legal Points" belongs to Perplexity. But I added detail, because I was personally involved.

After West Virginia coal baron Don Blankenship's failed 2018 Senate race in West Virginia (which I followed here and here), he sued some 150 writers/broadcasters/media outlets/random political enemies for a grand total of $8 billion for defamation, claiming that all those media influencers (including, incidentally WataugaWatch and yours truly) had maliciously labeled Mr. Blankenship a felon, or had mistakenly said he was convicted of a felony (when in fact it turned out to be a misdemeanor, though he still spent a year in Federal prison). His lawsuit alleged we had individually and collectively damaged his reputation and hurt his chances of beating Senator Joe Manchin for the West Virginia Senate seat.

Oh, the company WataugaWatch was keeping! Some of the others named as defendants: the Washington Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, Esquire magazine, Wonkette, the Huffington Post, Breitbart News -- the list of defendants ran on for pages. I feel pretty sure that somebody working for Blankenship must have done universal Web searches for every incidence of the words Blankenship and felon (or felony) appearing together in print. If there was a Google search behind this lawsuit, it certainly ensnared me, an otherwise obscure blogger in the backwoods of North Carolina. (My two uses of Blankenship and felon are archived at the links above. My written correction to those posts is here.)

It took months -- years, actually --for the Federal judge in Charleston to dismiss Blankenship's suit for failing to reach the high bar of proving actual malice. 

Key Legal Points Assembled by Perpexity:

Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy, served a year in prison for misdemeanor conspiracy related to mine safety violations leading up to the deadly 2010 Upper Big Branch mine explosion that killed 29 miners.

The courts found that defendants' errors were not made with the requisite "actual malice" standard necessary for public figures to prove in defamation cases, particularly given Blankenship's high-profile 2018 Senate campaign.

West Virginia District Court Judge John Thomas Copenhaver Jr. granted summary judgment to all defendants in 2022. That summary judgment was affirmed by the appellate court in 2023. The U.S. Supremes declined to consider Blankenship's final appeal -- allowing the district court ruling to stand.

 

Don Blankenship, At It Again

 

Photo Luke Sharrett, New York Times

In 2018, a notorious West Virginia coal baron named Don Blankenship ran for the US Senate as a Republican, and I, along with at least 150 other bloggers and major news outlets, wrote about him. He sued all of us for defamation. You can confirm that here. The suit was eventually dismissed. At least I was dismissed from the suit. I don't believe Mr. Blankenship collected the large sum in damages he was suing for.

A friend yesterday sent me this update on the new political activities of Mr. Blankenship, which are interesting primarily for his trying to involve John F. Kennedy Jr. in his campaign. The following is taken directly from dKos:

• WV-Sen: In case you weren't already aware that Don Blankenship, the ex-Republican ex-con who now purports to be running for Senate as a Democrat, is batshit crazy, please check out his new batch of TV ads, courtesy of Medium Buying. In case you're scared to click (you should be) because you don't want to alarm anyone who might be in earshot, here's a transcript of the first spot:

Blankenship: I'm Don Blankenship, candidate for the United States Senate, and I paid for this ad.

Narrator: Don Blankenship will tell you the honest truth!

RFK Jr.: Don Blankenship … he's the most honest CEO in America!

Narrator: Unfortunately, our government is not honest. Even the truth about the murders of Mr. Kennedy's dad and uncle are kept hidden. They even refused to keep Mr. Kennedy safe because he left the party. Your choice is simple: You could vote for more lies, or you could vote for …

RFK Jr.: Most honest CEO in America!

Blankenship: If they tell you I fell off the bed and hung myself, I didn't.

The old grainy footage of Kennedy, by the way, is from a strange public debate he and Blankenship staged in 2010 over the merits of mountaintop removal mining. Just months later, a fatal accident at a coal mine run by Blankenship led to the deaths of 29 miners, the worst such disaster on American soil in 40 years. The man Kennedy praised as "the most honest CEO in America" would later serve a year in federal prison for conspiring to violate federal mine safety rules.

 

A Correction

I thought my readers should know that I've been sued for defamation by Mr. Don Blankenship, former Chairman and CEO of the Massey Energy Company of West Virginia. It appears Mr. Blankenship thinks I had something to do with his loss in the Republican senatorial primary in West Virginia in 2018.

I am one of what were originally 150 defendants. The top first-named defendant is Judge Andrew Napolitano of the Fox News Network (hence the suit is known as Blankenship v. Napolitano et al.). Others named as defendants include the Washington Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, Esquire magazine, Wonkette, the Huffington Post, Breitbart News -- the list runs to several pages. Some of these have now apparently negotiated their way out of the lawsuit.

On April 5, 2010, a huge underground explosion at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, W.Va., took the lives of 29 miners. As head of the company, Blankenship was subsequently prosecuted by the Federal government for that explosion. In a trial in West Virginia, Blankenship was acquitted by a jury of some charges, found guilty of one charge, and spent approximately a year in Federal prison.

When he left prison, he went into politics and ran for the US Senate in the Republican primary of 2018 with two other candidates who hoped to unseat Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.

According to Blankenship v. Napolitano et al., WataugaWatch referred to Blankenship in a post on April 15, 2018, as a "recent felon … who's notorious in West Virginia without necessarily being electable." On the eve of the primary, May 7, 2018, WataugaWatch again mentioned Blankenship: "Holy crap! Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin has been considered the most endangered Democrat in the US Senate, but the Republican voters in their primary tomorrow may grant him a reprieve … if they choose felon coal baron Don Blankenship to run against him." 

It turns out that although Mr. Blankenship was charged with felonies, he was only convicted of a misdemeanor. By using the word felon, I am blamed for linking to national news sources and for following the language being used at the time in the mainstream press, which some sources later corrected. I was unaware of those corrections, and I was unaware that he had only been convicted of a misdemeanor. I thought my characterization was accurate. Most of the 150 defendants in this lawsuit -- perhaps all of them -- at some point used the word felon or the word felony in the same sentence with the name Don Blankenship, as did I.

   

Correction: My saying that Don Blankenship was a felon instead of his being convicted of one misdemeanor charge of conspiring to violate mine safety and health standards in relation to the Upper Big Branch Mine explosion -- for which his punishment was a year in jail -- was a mistake and unintentional. He was indeed acquitted of the felony charges. I meant no offense.

Blankenship lost the Republican primary on May 8 to Patrick Morrisey by 20,529 votes, coming in third in the primary out of a total of six candidates. The readership of WataugaWatch is primarily located in North Carolina, and principally in Watauga County of North Carolina. I don't know how many West Virginia voters might be reading a local North Carolina blog, but I don't think it's enough to have caused Don Blankenship to lose his primary race by over 20,000 votes.

Footnote

Breaking News: On Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020 -- yesterday -- a federal judge in West Virginia refused to toss the misdemeanor conviction of Don Blankenship for conspiring to violate mine safety laws.

The 'Trump Effect' in West Virginia

The Washington Examiner posted this just before 5 p.m. yesterday:

Republican Don Blankenship is filing to run for Senate in West Virginia, taking on the state's sore loser law that prohibits candidates who lost in the primary from running in the general election.

The Blankenship campaign acknowledged that the West Virginia secretary of state's office was unlikely to certify his candidacy, but described his plan to file papers as a first step toward getting around state law and earning the right to challenge Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin in the midterm elections as a third party candidate.

Blankenship, a felon coal mine operator who came in third (last) on May 8th in the Republican primary for US Senate, makes it a habit to stick his thumb in the establishment's eye. We posted here on the eve of the May 8th primary:

Holy crap! Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin has been considered the most endangered Democrat in the US Senate, but the Republican voters in their primary tomorrow may grant him a reprieve ... if they choose felon coal baron Don Blankenship to run against him. National Republicans are so worried about that outcome that they induced Corporal Bonespurs to tweet this morning a warning to WVa voters not to vote for Blankenship. "Remember Alabama," DJT tweeted.

Being dissed by the Twitterman is ironic, isn't it? Because Blankenship fancies himself another Trump. In fact, "trumpier than Trump!" -- similar appetites, personality, and carelessness with the truth.

If Blankenship is able to throw a clod into that West Virginia churn, Manchin's prospects will get much brighter. Manchin is perhaps our least favorite Democrat in the US Senate, but we'll take him over any Republican on most days.

Other State Primaries I'll Be Watching Tomorrow

Don Blankenship

West Virginia

Holy crap! Democratic incumbent Joe Manchin has been considered the most endangered Democrat in the US Senate, but the Republican voters in their primary tomorrow may grant him a reprieve ... if they choose felon coal baron Don Blankenship to run against him. National Republicans are so worried about that outcome that they induced Corporal Bonespurs to tweet this morning a warning to WVa voters not to vote for Blankenship. "Remember Alabama," DJT tweeted.

Indiana

Three trumpers are trying to out-trump one another (though outsider Mike Braun, the acknowledged front-runner, has a history of pulling Democratic ballots in his state's primaries, which is being used against him by his opponents). Whoever wins this primary will face incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly this fall. Donnelly is considered vulnerable, and the Republicans badly want to flip this seat.

Ohio

Republican primary for governor, with term-limited John Kasich on the everlasting outs with trumpers. Vying to replace him: Lieutenant Gov. Mary Taylor, who is backed by Kasich, and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, who was endorsed by the state party and most Republican members of the state House. Mary Taylor is apparently nervous about the Kasich endorsement because of trumper backlash.

Also in Ohio (and according to Ballotpedia): "One key primary is in the 16th Congressional District, where pro-Trump state Rep. Christina Hagan is facing former Ohio State football player Anthony Gonzalez to replace U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci (R), who is running for the U.S. Senate. While Hagan has aligned herself with pro-Trump figures like Anthony Scaramucci and House Freedom Caucus leaders, Gonzalez has attracted traditional Republican donors and is backed by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)."

The Words, the Attitude, the Hat -- But Is It a Winning Look for 2018?

So far, the Republican candidates trying to out-Trump Trump have not been doing so well with voters. Roy Moore in Alabama wanted to be the Bama Basher in the style of his hero in the White House. Rick Saccone liked to say "I was Trump before Trump was Trump" in his Pennsylvania race for the US House, but he lost badly to Conor Lamb.

They're often Trump's parrots (see below), and often decked out in that scarlet hat and claiming to be more like Twitterman than their Republican opponents. Ex-Massey Energy Co. boss Don Blankenship, once he got out of prison and decided he wanted to be US Senator from West Virginia, became a Twitter sensation himself, emulating his idol (who's endorsed not one but both of the Republicans running against Blankenship in the primary. There's no end to irony).

Todd Rokita (pictured above in his MAGA hat) is running as the trumpster who wants to represent Indiana in the US Senate. "Not to be outdone, one of Mr. Rokita’s opponents, Luke Messer, tarred Mr. Rokita as 'Lyin’ Todd,' an echo of Mr. Trump’s epithet for Senator Ted Cruz, 'Lyin’ Ted.' Mr. Messer’s gripe? Mr. Rokita falsely claimed to have received the president’s endorsement" (Jeremy W. Peters). Rokita got the endorsement not of Corporal Bonespurs but of the corporal's head Indiana campaign persons back in 2016.

The poker bluff of 2018: "I see your strut, and I raise you a fuss."

“We don’t need to investigate our president. We need to arrest Hillary,” thunders Don Blankenship in a campaign ad in West Virginia.

“I proudly stand with our president and Mike Pence to drain the swamp,” declares Rokita in his own TV spot in Indiana.

"Let’s get this ‘@#$% thing’ done,” Martha McSally, candidate for US Senate from Arizona, said at a campaign rally about The Wall, and was quoted in the press.

“Someone told me the other day that I was the first Trump, the Trump for Mississippi,” said Chris McDaniel, a candidate for Senate in Mississippi.

The obvious question: Is any of this strut and fuss playing well beyond his base? And what's his base, anyway? Maybe 35% of the voting public, which is only a fraction of the whole public which can and might actually vote.

Like Twitterman likes to say on all occasions, "We'll see what happens."

Maverick and Unpredictable Republican Candidates Embroil Senate Races

The US Chamber of Commerce has entered the fight in the Mississippi special election in November: Will the appointed woman with no pizzazz keep the seat, or will the more charismatic but extremely conservative upstart push her aside?



We profiled Cindy Hyde-Smith's Republican upstart opponent, Chris McDaniel, back on March 1, when he was thought to be a likely Trumpian primary opponent to Sen. Roger Wicker this year, but then Cochran resigned and Cindy Hyde-Smith got appointed, and well, opportunity smells.

Anyway, the US Chamber of Commerce seems worried enough about the rise of McDaniel, and the loss of the seat to Democrat Mike Espy, that they're spending millions on that 30-second TV ad.

In West Virginia, something similar is happening, with the scary upstart being a recent felon who presided over a coal company that lied about the deaths of 29 coal miners, one Don Blankenship, who's notorious in West Virginia without necessarily being electable. So the Republican funding base is rallying against Blankenship, while state polls show Rep. Evan Jenkins in the lead and with Twitterman on stage in the state appearing to endorse both Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, while very publicly dissing Blankenship. Everyone thinks Blankenship would be a disaster running against Democrat Manchin, who might otherwise be uniquely vulnerable this year.