Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s $4.8 billion lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League — accusing the group of falsely proclaiming him an antisemite — “lacks any substance whatsoever” and should be tossed out of court, the group said.
Farrakhan, 90, who once called Hitler a “great man” and for years has talked of “Satanic” Jews who control the government and Hollywood, sued the ADL in Manhattan Federal Court in October, claiming his venomous reputation is a “false narrative” pushed by the group.
With antisemitism at “historic levels” since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas, it’s “more important than ever for Jewish organizations and individuals — and hopefully all organizations and individuals — to be able to call out antisemitism to counter it, without fear of the legal system being weaponized to silence them,” the ADL said in its legal answer to Farrakhan’s case.
While Farrakhan claimed the ADL knew he was no antisemite when they accused him, he provided no facts to back the allegation, the ADL argued.
“Merely denying the truth of a statement and alleging that the speaker was aware of its falsehood does not satisfy the [legal] requirements for alleging actual malice,” the ADL said in court papers.
