RedState reported Wednesday on the completely over-the-top, troubling response Roy Cooper's legal team issued to a North Carolina-based media outlet in response to questions they sent inquiring about the Democrat Senate nominee's health and whether he'd be able to serve the full six years of a Senate term if elected.
Attorneys from the D.C.-based Elias Law Group, founded by election-denying Democrat super-lawyer Marc Elias, sent a cease-and-desist letter to the North State Journal (NSJ), a statewide newspaper, within five hours of the standard inquiry. They condescendingly wrote in part, "Let us make this exceedingly simple and crystal clear to you: Governor Cooper intends to complete his entire term, and any suggestion that he is 'experiencing a neurological issue,' or that any health condition would prevent him from completing his term, is categorically false and defamatory."
In the letter, the full contents of which can be read here, they went on to threaten legal action:
This letter places the North State Journal on notice of these facts. If it publishes such false and defamatory statements, it will be acting with knowledge of their falsity or, at a minimum, with reckless disregard for the truth—the definition of actual malice. See N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 279–80 (1964). Should the North State Journal publish these falsehoods in its plain pursuit of online clicks and a political hatchet job, it will be sued.
As I noted at the time, what these types of legal threats from campaigns sometimes lead to is even more speculation as to why a campaign or public official would be so insistent on silencing the simple asking of relevant questions and reporting on the answers and related discussions. In other words, it has the net effect of backfiring, which is exactly what happened here.
On Friday, George Washington University Law School Professor Jonathan Turley weighed in, and not only did he expose the big problems with the Elias Law Group's referencing of N.Y. Times Co. v. Sullivan as it related to the NSJ inquiry, but he also had a very pointed question for Cooper:
In New York Times v. Sullivan, the Supreme Court crafted the actual malice standard, requiring public officials to shoulder the higher burden of proving defamation. Under that standard, an official would have to show either actual knowledge of its falsity or a reckless disregard of the truth.
The standard was later extended to public figures. The Supreme Court has held that public figure status applies when someone “thrust[s] himself into the vortex of [the] public issue [and] engage[s] the public’s attention in an attempt to influence its outcome.” A limited-purpose public figure status applies if someone voluntarily “draw[s] attention to himself” or allows himself to become part of a controversy “as a fulcrum to create public discussion.” Wolston v. Reader’s Digest Association, 443 U.S. 157, 168 (1979).
Turley also wondered why a guy like Cooper would be associated with Elias:
...It is legally absurd to suggest that the media would be liable for defamation for inquiring about the fitness of a political candidate. It is equally baffling why Cooper wants to be associated with the likes of Elias while trying to appeal to Republican and independent voters.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) October 16, 2026
Well, professor, let me just say that Mr. Elias, Cooper, and NC's current Democrat governor, Josh Stein (who was state attorney general when Cooper was governor), have a rather storied and notoriously shady history with one another, the backstory of which anyone interested can read more about in this 2020 RedState piece I wrote: NC Dems Collude With National Party Lawyer to Remove Crucial North Carolina Absentee Ballot Safeguards.
That's the long version. Here's the short version:
Marc Elias represented Roy Cooper in the 2016 recount that gave Cooper the win by .2%. Elias reps this AFL-CIO affiliate in a lawsuit against Cooper's BoE (with a Democrat majority). This group had the Dem AG as 2018 keynote speaker. AG & BoE "settles" with Elias. #NCpol
— Pete Kaliner (@PeteKaliner) September 27, 2020
Questions about the health of elected officials and those seeking office have become increasingly common thanks to the Democrat/media-led cover-up of then-President Joe Biden's declining health for the four years he held office. We've seen questions persistently raised in the national press about other prominent public figures as well, including Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is 84 and is serving out his final term in office. It stands to reason that Cooper, who seeks to represent the Old North State in the U.S. Senate, would face similar questioning from journalists.
Cooper turned 69 over the summer. If he wins and then serves his full term, he'll be 75 and a half years old. Critics, including the NRSC and his GOP opponent, former RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, have accused Cooper's team throughout the campaign of more or less running a "basement" operation similar to Biden's in 2020, where things appeared to be heavily directed/stage-managed, and with interactions with the press and the public very limited.
Case in point, the bizarre scene that played out with Cooper and purported supporters during the first day of early voting:
Former Gov. Roy Cooper just showed up on the first day of early voting to cast his ballot presumably for himself for US Senate (I never assume). 🇺🇸 #ncpol https://t.co/m6OkAH5mTK
— Danielle Battaglia (@dani__battaglia) October 15, 2026
There's plenty more where that came from, but this from Turley is also important to keep in mind:
Cooper, however, wanted Elias and his legal team to represent him and must have approved threatening a media outlet rather than answering a predictable question from a journalist.
That, too, is no surprise at all, considering the reported political threats Cooper made to members of his own party who were serving in the General Assembly in 2016 during his first gubernatorial election campaign, when he was attorney general, amid the backlash to the HB2 "bathroom bill." But that's a story for another day, which we'll have for you very soon.
Stay tuned.
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