Gateway Pundit still faces defamation case in Denver
By Paul Wagman
Although the Gateway Pundit appears to have emerged largely unscathed from the defamation case two Georgia poll workers once brought against him in St. Louis, he is not yet entirely out of the defamation woods.
This past June, the U.S. District Court in Denver finally set an April 2026 trial date for another defamation case filed five years ago against both The Gateway Pundit (TGP Communications LLC) and its owner, Jim Hoft, a longtime St. Louisan who may now also keep a residence in Florida. The case also involves several other defendants, including Donald J. Trump for President Inc., the official name for the Trump 2020 presidential campaign, and Rudy Giuliani.
The plaintiff in the case is Eric Coomer, the former Director of Product Security and Strategy for Dominion Voting Systems. He has accused all the defendants of recklessly spreading false claims that he conspired with Antifa activists to rig the 2020 Presidential election by switching votes to Joe Biden. The result, he said, was “an onslaught of harassment and credible death threats issued against him,” which forced him into hiding and to leave his job.
A federal court jury in Denver has already found one of the people Coomer sued separately in the matter guilty. Mike Lindell, the pillow salesman and aggressive election denier, was ordered this past June to pay Coomer $2.3 million in damages for his role in defaming him.
Several other defendants have settled. They include Sidney Powell, a former Trump attorney; One America News Network and its White House correspondent, Chanel Rion; Newsmax Media, Inc., which also publicly apologized; and Salem Media of Colorado, a conservative Christian media company, and its former radio host, Randy Corporon.
Corporon is also representing Hoft in his case in Colorado, along with St. Louis-based attorney Jonathan C. Burns.
Hoft has contended that his coverage relied on the sworn affidavits, statements, and evidence presented by others; that they were made without malice; and that they are protected free speech.
Attorneys for Coomer say Hoft relied on “false allegations” made by another defendant, Colorado podcaster Joseph Oltmann, without making any “efforts to verify or corroborate” them and even though there was “no credible evidence” to support them.
On his website, his attacks on Coomer remain. Some sample headlines of stories under his own by-line:
- From Oct. 12, 2021: “F**k the USA!” – Dominion’s Eric Coomer Admits Under Oath to Being former Skinhead, Heroin Addict – Lied in Denver Post Screed (VIDEO)”
- Nov. 27, 2020: BALD-FACED LIES: Dominion Says Assertions of Vote Switching Are “Completely False” — But We Have Two Videos of Dominion Executive Eric Coomer Showing How to Switch Votes
However the case finally ends – in a trial or a settlement – it will be the last step in a tortuous process that began with an initial filing by Coomer in December 2020. Lawyers for Hoft and the other defendants filed motions to have the case dismissed, but in May 2022 Colorado District Court Judge Marie Aver Moses denied the motions and excoriated all the defendants, Hoft included. About him and The Gateway Pundit she wrote:
“… there is evidence that Hoft-TGP repeatedly, without evidence, falsely accused Coomer of overturning the presidential election. … Further, there is evidence Hoft-TGP’s allegations incited threats of real violence against Coomer, including posting an article advertising a million-dollar bounty on Coomer. … There is prima facie evidence that Hoft-TGP acted recklessly and with the intent to cause Coomer severe emotional distress. Coomer has put forward prima facie evidence establishing both falsity and Hoft-TGP’s actual malice. … Coomer has established a reasonable likelihood that he will prevail on his claims for intentional infliction of emotional distress against Hoft-TGP.”
But the defendants went to the Colorado Court of Appeals, and there the case languished for nearly two years.
In April 2024, that court finally denied the appeal. In regard to Hoft and TGP, it agreed that they didn’t incite violence against Coomer, but added:
“We do not agree that their conduct can be deemed not extreme and outrageous as a matter of law. … Coomer presented evidence that would support a finding that the Hoft Defendants falsely accused him … of saying he ‘made sure’ President Trump would not win reelection and implied, with no evidence, that he had rigged the presidential election … The Hoft Defendants then repeated those claims several times to a nationwide audience …
“These statements went beyond mere insults, annoyances, or trivialities. … They struck at the core of American democracy and made Coomer a personification of claims that the presidential election had been stolen.”
Seeking to overturn the Appeals Court’s judgment, Hoft and the other defendants filed a writ of certiorari, but in March 2025 the Colorado Supreme Court rejected that petition and sent the case back to the District Court, which a few months later set the trial date for next April 6. Discovery has already begun.
Paul Wagman is a former Post-Dispatch reporter and FleishmanHillard executive who is now an independent reporter, editor and communications consultant.
