A judge has ordered Rep. Darrell Issa to pay his opponent from last year’s election more than $45,000 in legal expenses fees incurred during a defamation lawsuit.

In November, Issa, a Vista Republican, sued Democrat Doug Applegate over attack commercials the congressman said hurt his reputation. In March, a judge said that Issa didn’t prove his case, but also sided with Applegate who argued that he was exercising his free speech rights with the television commercials, and that Issa’s lawsuit was an attempt to silence criticism.

Now the judge has ordered Issa to reimburse Applegate, his campaign, and campaign manager Robert Dempsey. According to the June decision, Issa must pay $42,500 in attorney fees and another $2,842 in legal costs the defendants incurred while protecting themselves against Issa’ lawsuit.

Issa’s attorney, Chuck Bell, said they are appealing the decision, and that they disagree with some of the judge’s assessments, including a determination that the ads, which were based on newspaper articles Issa disputes, were true.


The defendants had initially asked the court to order Issa to give them $138,188 to pay their attorneys, but after Issa appealed in May, Superior Court Judge Richard Strauss said that some of Applegate’s lawyers’ work was excessive and that the court will not order the full payment requested.

“While high profile in nature, since the parties were a sitting United State (sic) Congressman and his congressional opponent, the legal issues were not particularly novel or complex. In addition, a number of tasks billed appear unnecessary or exceptionally high for the work performed,” Strauss wrote in a June 16 decision.

The television commercials aired in Orange and San Diego counties in advance of last year’s election. One of the spots used parts of an article from The New York Times that was headlined “A Businessman in Congress Helps his District and Himself” that Issa has disputed ever since it was published in August 2011.

In the lawsuit, Issa complained that one of Applegate’s commercial had a line that did not appear in the original article that would cause people to falsely conclude that he had used his official position to enrich himself.


“It basically implied that it was the speech of the newspapers, not that of the (Applegate) campaign’s design. And that’s where the statements were false and not privileged,” Bell said.

Strauss said Issa failed to prove Applegate’s claim was wrong, noting that the congressman’s wealth had increased during his tenure in office. Bell said that the court took an “overly broad” focus when determining the truth of the ads.

Issa said the other commercial had misleading statements about his voting record, and misrepresented a newspaper quote to falsely accuse Issa of opposing help for the victims, first responders, and others harmed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In this instance, the judge said that Issa didn’t prove that the statements in Applegate’s ad were untrue, and he noted that Issa did vote against a bill that would have provided health care to first responders.


He said the quotes used in the 9/11 ad were “substantially true.”

In March, the court found that Issa’s lawsuit violated Applegate’s free speech right, a decision that made the congressman responsible for expenses the defendants incurred while arguing their case.

Issa insists the ads are wrong.

“Seen the false and misleading ads?” a scrolling banner on his website said Friday afternoon. “Get the facts.”


Besides Applegate, attorney Mike Levin and businessman Paul Kerr, are also running against Issa in 2018. All are Democrats. Issa was re-elected last year after defeating Applegate by 1,621 votes, the closest congressional race in the country.


Twitter: @jptstewart

joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com

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