Defamation lawsuit filed in one of the most competitive congressional races in the country

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Democratic candidate in the hotly contested race for Bucks County’s seat in the United States House of Representatives is suing a political action committee for defamation.

Congressional candidate Bob Harvie has filed a federal lawsuit against Defending America PAC and Chris Pack, who, according to the lawsuit, is Defending America’s president.

Harvie called statements that were repeatedly made in advertisements and on social media “a blatant lie” and “provably false.” He said claims in advertisements paid for by Pack’s political action committee called him the subject of an FBI investigation.

Harvie said he sent a cease and desist letter to Pack on July 2 and, rather than complying, Pack, according to the lawsuit, “doubled down” and said he would pay Harvie’s legal fees if he filed a defamation suit. Pack called the letter an attempt to “chill protected political speech.”

The suit said that while Harvie testified in 2021 before a Grand Jury investigating political donations and union contracts at Pennsbury High School when Harvie was chair of the Falls Township Board of Supervisors, at no point was Harvie the subject of the investigation, and he was never charged with a crime.

The suit accuses the defendants of being “unscrupulous out-of-state operatives” acting “with actual malice, even in a hotly contested political campaign.”