2 Utah Residents Sue Kevin O’Leary, Fox News Over CCP Proxy Defamation Claims
Updated
Updated · Deseret News · Jul 15
2 Utah Residents Sue Kevin O’Leary, Fox News Over CCP Proxy Defamation Claims
3 articles · Updated · Deseret News · Jul 15
Summary
Gabi Finlayson and Josh Kanter filed a federal defamation suit Wednesday, seeking compensatory and punitive damages over claims that they acted as Chinese Communist Party proxies while opposing O’Leary’s Box Elder County AI data center.
The complaint says O’Leary named them on Fox News in May and repeated the allegations on social media, triggering online harassment, conspiracy theories and damage to their reputations and businesses.
After receiving a legal demand, O’Leary posted on X that he had no evidence they were funded by China or the CCP, according to the plaintiffs’ press release.
Fox News said it corrected the record on every program where O’Leary made the remarks and will fight the case, while O’Leary’s lawyer called the suit a cash grab and said counterclaims are coming.
The lawsuit grows out of local opposition to O’Leary’s controversial Utah data center project, turning a dispute over AI infrastructure into a national defamation fight.