Dan Bishop drops defamation suit against Jeff Jackson’s attorney general campaign
Former U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop has dropped his defamation lawsuit against the campaign of Jeff Jackson, who defeated him to win the state’s 2024 attorney general race.
Bishop, a Republican from Waxhaw, filed the lawsuit in October against Jackson’s campaign, the state Democratic Party, the Democratic Attorneys General Association and Dynata, a company that conducts polls and surveys.
Jackson won 51.4% of the vote to defeat Bishop in the November general election.
Bishop’s lawsuit contended he was defamed by claims that he represented clients who stole money from the elderly. The lawsuit also claimed defamation by a Dynata political survey in July that suggested the claim was a “factual assertion.”
The survey question asked Union County voters if they were more or less likely to vote for Bishop if they “knew that, as a lawyer, he represented people who stole money from the elderly.”
The N.C. Democratic Party had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was scheduled for a hearing Jan. 21. Bishop dismissed the lawsuit “without prejudice” Friday, according to court records, leaving open the possibility that a new lawsuit could be filed within a year. Courthouse News Service first reported that Bishop dropped his lawsuit.
After his defeat in the attorney general’s race, incoming President Donald Trump in December nominated Bishop to serve as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, a position which requires U.S. Senate confirmation.
Jackson was sworn in as North Carolina’s 52nd attorney general earlier this month.
LAWSUIT WAS FILED IN FINAL LEG OF CAMPAIGN
Bishop’s campaign told The N&O in October that the lawsuit was filed “to protect Congressman Bishop’s professional reputation against false and defamatory accusations the Jackson campaign or its allies were preparing to launch.”
“The campaign hasn’t sought publicity about the suit, and the suit does not target Jeff Jackson personally. Frankly, we wish we didn’t even have to do this. The better course would be for candidates and their allies to maintain a basic level of decency,” the campaign said.
It noted a June 2024 report from The New Republic that claimed Bishop worked as an attorney “multiple times with organizations accused of questionable business practices.”
The story was “riddled with falsehoods,” the lawsuit claimed, and was republished in September with “substantial changes.”
A note at the bottom of the story states that it “originally misstated the status” of one of the cases mentioned initially, and that the story “has also been updated for clarity.”
In nearly 30 years as a private attorney, he never “represented people who stole from the elderly,” Bishop said. He also claimed the Dynata survey may have been prompted by a “direct or indirect client,” who was among the defendants named in the lawsuit.
The poll and The New Republic story may have been based on “defective, incomplete, unrepresentative and false opposition research” provided by someone who knew it was false or relied on “cherry picking and distorting and mischaracterizing individual cases, and subordinating accuracy and truth to the object of competitive advantage in the campaign.”
Jackson’s campaign told The News & Observer at the time that it didn’t expect the lawsuit to be successful.
“Mr. Bishop says he wants to be Mark Robinson’s sidekick and we imagine this will have as much success as Mark Robinson’s legal actions,” the campaign said in the statement.
The campaign didn’t respond when asked about its role in the Dynata poll. N.C. Democratic Party spokesperson Tommy Mattocks called the allegation “ridiculous and desperate” at the time.
Dynata officials did not respond to the lawsuit, according to a Jan. 16 court document.
This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 11:02 AM with the headline "Dan Bishop drops defamation suit against Jeff Jackson’s attorney general campaign."
