Dean French, the controversial former chief of staff to Premier Doug Ford, has withdrawn his $100,000 libel and slander lawsuit against MPP Randy Hillier.

French, who resigned June 21 amid a cronyism scandal, had launched the legal action against the maverick Independent MPP in April after a Twitter post from Hillier.

As first disclosed by the Star, the two sides had been in negotiations for weeks to resolve the matter, which was a source of embarrassment to the premier because of the optics of a political staffer suing an elected official over a tweet.

Asked Monday for a statement on the end of the legal tussle, a Ford aide said “the premier’s office has no comment.”

Neither the Ontario government nor the Progressive Conservative party was footing the tab for the lawsuit.

Hillier, the veteran Lanark-Kingston-Frontenac MPP, was expelled from the Conservative caucus last winter after privately complaining to Ford about French.

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After his expulsion, he warned of a “culture of fear and intimidation” in the premier’s office and made allegations about “illegal and unregistered lobbying” of the Conservatives, which he has not detailed.

Ontario Provincial Police have been looking into Hillier’s allegations, but no formal investigation has been launched.

Lawyer Gavin Tighe said Monday that French “is grateful that Mr. Hillier has taken down the defamatory tweets.”

“Given that Mr. French is no longer involved with government and there were never any monetary damages sought by Mr. French personally (as all damages would have been donated to charity as set out in the statement of claim), there was little point in carrying on with expensive and time consuming litigation,” Tighe said in an email.

Hillier, who had always maintained French’s action was “frivolous and vexatious,” expressed satisfaction that the matter is closed.

“I am happy to turn the page on this. While Mr. French and I do not see eye to eye on many things, I am glad we have found something we can agree on,” the MPP said.

“I believe the right decision has been made here, and I am happy to see this distraction ended.”

French’s now-withdrawn lawsuit alleged Hillier made “blatantly false” tweets accusing him of illegally destroying ballots in the party’s 2018 leadership race and using his personal email server to cast “fraudulent” ballots in the leadership race of Alberta’s United Conservative Party the year before.

The allegations were never tested in court.

On Twitter, Hillier’s lawyer, Asher Honickman noted “the libel claim brought against my client ... will be dismissed without costs.” The two are now challenging Ontario’s “discriminatory election finance laws,” which do not give Independent MPPs the same fundraising rights as MPPs from recognized political parties.

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Hillier had retracted and deleted his tweets on April 12 and issued an apology that French’s lawyer described at the time as “inadequate.”

His statement of defence had depicted French as a “mercurial” man waging a “personal vendetta” against an outspoken MPP by using a so-called “strategic lawsuit against public participation.”

Ford’s former chief of staff resigned a month ago, the same day Ford revoked two six-figure patronage appointments — one to a 26-year-old lacrosse buddy of French’s son and the other to a cousin of French’s wife.

The ongoing “French connection” cronyism scandal has led seven people leaving postings so far and prompted the premier to promise to reform the appointment process.

Robert Benzie is the Star's Queen's Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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