An appellate court has sided with Steve Wynn in his defamation lawsuit against attorney Lisa Bloom and her law firm in a legal battle over a news release about allegations against the former casino mogul.
A three-judge panel with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late last month upheld a lower court’s decision to deny Bloom’s motion to dismiss Wynn’s complaint.
Bloom had filed what’s known as an anti-SLAPP motion — designed to stop frivolous claims — arguing that Wynn was a “billionaire trying to silence his critics.”
Her Las Vegas attorney, Marc Randazza, said Monday that he planned to file court papers later this week, asking for a full panel of judges to review the motion.
“It is poorly reasoned and untethered from legal principle,” Randazza said of the March 25 decision from the 9th Circuit.
The unpublished opinion stemmed from Wynn’s defamation lawsuit in response to a news release from The Bloom Firm in which Lisa Bloom said she represented “a new woman alleging sexual harassment and retaliation against Steve Wynn.”
Bloom said her client was a dancer from the show ShowStoppers at Wynn Las Vegas from late 2014 through late 2016, and was ordered to strip down “to be sexually appealing to Mr. Wynn.”
Wynn called accusations that he leered at female performers a false attempt to pressure payments, saying he was legally blind at the time.
“Wynn has demonstrated a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether Bloom Defendants acted with actual malice in publishing the Press Release,” the 9th Circuit panel wrote. “Bloom Defendants chose to publish the Press Release inculpating Wynn after learning that none of the witnesses could confirm that Wynn played any role in giving the instructions and without considering alternative explanations or investigating further.”
