A victim of the Boston Marathon bombing is suing Glenn Beck and his network for defamation, POLITICO reported.
Abdulrahman Alharbi, a Saudi Arabian student, claims Beck and his station, TheBlaze, called Alharbi a suspect in the bombings after police determined he was not connected to the attack.
In addition to being injured in the bombings, Alharbi was questioned by the FBI and had his apartment searched. Eventually, authorities crossed him off as merely a witness.
"Beck ... repeatedly questioned the motives of federal officials in failing to pursue or detain Alharbi an repeatedly and falsely accused Mr. Alharbi of being a criminal who had funded the attacks that took place at the Boston marathon," his lawyers wrote. "Those statements were made widely and publicly. The statements were false and caused grave injury to the plaintiff."
Alharbi is seeking damages and lawyer fees in the lawsuit, claiming his "reputation has been substantially and severely damaged" and received messages accusing him of involvement due to Beck's comments.
On April 22, days after the attacks occurred, Beck claimed on his show that Alharbi was somehow a part of the bombings.
"The government has not come clean nor has really any of the mainstream media," Beck said. "The government is out and out lying to you. They are engaging in a disinformation campaign to discredit and destroy."
"While the media continues to look at what the causes were of these two guys, there are, at this hour, three people involved in the bombings in Boston. The first one was caught on Monday, and we don't know at this point ... how he was involved. But we do know that he was involved. ... How many times does lightning has to strike in the first place for this guy to be at the scene of the crime and in the hospital and not involved?"
Beck then listed facts of the case based off of his "sources."
"On Monday, following the bombings, a Saudi national was taken into custody in the hospital, having been injured in the blast," he said, saying the man's apartment was searched and he was designated for deportation with the class "212 3B."
"3B is about as bad as they come," Beck said. "It means you have demonstrated yourself to be a proven terrorist and engaged in proven terrorist activity."
Beck and TheBlaze have not commented on the lawsuit.
