By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE, June 21 – James O'Keefe III of Project Veritas filed a New York State lawsuit against Twitter, for after banning his account saying it was based on him operating fake accounts.
O'Keefe says the claim is false and has caused him damage. Twitter through counsel at Gibson Dunn filed a notice of removal to Federal court.
On June 16, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge Barbara C. Moses scheduled a pre-motion conference, putting outside her 20th floor courtroom door a sign requiring hand-sanitizing for COVID-19 purposes. Inner City Press went to cover it.
Counsel for O'Keefe from the Dhillon Law Group in Montclair, NJ noted that their state complaint did not specify damages, and therefore removal to Federal court is ineffective, since the case does not meet the $75,000 jurisdictional requirement.
Courtesy Elizabeth Williams, defense attorney Amer Ahmed and plaintiff attorney Ronald Coleman (also here).
Judge Moses has so far, by the afternoon of June 16 entered a barebones Minute Entry into the docket. But referral back to state court, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, was on the table, as Inenr City Press reported on June 16.
On June 18, Juneteenth (observed), Twitter filed with the largely empty court that it would consent to remand to the state court as long as O'Keefe does not seek $75,000 or more in damages. The filing went in at 4:30 pm on a holiday Friday, but Inner City Press found and reported it.
Now on June 21, O'Keefe's lawyer has filed a letter that O'Keefe waives any claim to damages greater than $75,000 - but reserves his right to seek damages of less than $75,000 and to all non monetary remedies.
Inner City Press will continue to follow the case(s), O'Keefe III v. Twitter, Inc., 21-cv-4240 (Woods / Moses) and O'Keefe III v. Twitter, Inc., Filed in NYS Supreme Court, Westchester County on April 19, 2021, Index No. 54926/2021
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