Missouri will defend senators sued for false posts on KC shooting. AG faces backlash

The state of Missouri will defend three state senators who each face federal lawsuits for sharing social media posts falsely accusing a man of being a shooter in the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade shooting.

Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office is representing Republican Sens. Rick Brattin of Harrisonville, Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg, and Nick Schroer of St. Charles County, a spokesperson for Bailey’s office confirmed.

All three senators, members of the hard-right Missouri Freedom Caucus, were sued last month for posts claiming that Denton Loudermill, an Olathe native, was an undocumented immigrant and a shooter in the February shooting that killed one person and injured more than 20.

Missouri lawmakers of both parties have sharply criticized Bailey’s decision to use state resources to defend the three senators. Several have pushed back on an argument from Bailey’s office that the posts were made in the senators’ official capacity.

Bailey’s office contends in a motion filed Thursday that the lawsuit against Brattin should be dismissed because he was acting in his official capacity when he made the social media post. The post was directed at the president and referred to border security concerns and Brattin should be protected by “legislative immunity,” the motion said.

“State legislators ‘should not be inhibited by judicial interference or distorted by the fear of personal liability when they publicly speak on issues of national importance,” Jeremiah Morgan, a deputy attorney general, wrote in the motion, which quoted prior case law.

Bailey’s office has not yet filed similar motions in the cases involving Hoskins and Schroer.

“I wholeheartedly disagree with his representation,” said Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican running for lieutenant governor. “It sounds to me like these claims online were made as individuals, not in their official capacity.”

Hough, who chairs the Senate’s budget-writing committee, specifically raised questions about the cost to taxpayers.

“They just don’t want to pay for their own attorneys,” he said. “So they have Andrew Bailey representing them because it doesn’t cost them anything, but it costs the taxpayers in Missouri an untold amount.”

The lawsuits against the Missouri senators came after an onslaught of false social media posts were shared with photos of Loudermill after the shooting. Loudermill also filed a similar lawsuit against U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, last month.

The Missouri lawmakers’ posts caused Loudermill to receive death threats, incur damages totaling more than $75,000, anxiety, and loss of sleep, according to the lawsuits, which accuse the senators of false light invasion of privacy. The lawsuits ask a judge to issue damages “to punish” or deter the senators and others from similar conduct in the future.

Rep. Adam Schwadron, a St. Charles Republican running for secretary of state against Hoskins, said in a statement that he was disappointed by Bailey’s decision, saying that Missouri “should not serve as counsel for matters not specifically related to official state duties.”

“If I or another representative were to get a speeding ticket on our way to session in Jefferson City, could we then go to the attorney general and demand representation?” Schwadron said in a statement. “It is a slippery slope.”

Brattin, in an affidavit attached to the motion filed Thursday, argues that he published his social media post “while I was engaged in my regular duties as a Missouri State Senator.”

Madeline Sieren, a spokesperson for Bailey’s office, in an email pointed to the state’s legal defense fund, which lawmakers direct money to to defend state employees and elected officials from legal claims connected to their official duties.

Senate Democrats from the Kansas City area also criticized Bailey’s decision to represent the three Republican senators.

“I find it utterly ridiculous that the people who espouse how much they hate taxpayer-funded handouts are the first ones in line with their hands out,” said Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, an Independence Democrat.

For Sen. Lauren Arthur, a Kansas City Democrat, Bailey’s move sets a “bizarre, expensive, and potentially dangerous precedent.”

“It is nonsensical that Missouri’s Attorney General would waste taxpayer dollars defending state senators who used their personal or campaign accounts to allegedly defame a private citizen,” Arthur said in a statement.

Brattin, during a February news conference in Jefferson City, refused to comment when asked by The Star whether he had apologized to Loudermill. He also signaled that he did not think his false post was worth an apology.

“There’s nothing that I even see – even worth that,” he said. “So we’ve done nothing. And, you know, I have no comment.”

He also refused to comment on whether he was worried about a potential lawsuit regarding his false post.