{"id":7308,"date":"2025-03-14T19:04:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T19:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mace-sued-for-defamation-by-man-she-accused-of-abuse-in-floor-speech\/"},"modified":"2025-03-14T19:04:26","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T19:04:26","slug":"mace-sued-for-defamation-by-man-she-accused-of-abuse-in-floor-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mace-sued-for-defamation-by-man-she-accused-of-abuse-in-floor-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Mace sued for defamation by man she accused of abuse in floor speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Rep. Nancy Mace<\/a> (R-S.C.) is facing a defamation lawsuit filed by one of the four men she has publicly accused of sexual abuse in a floor speech, in a case that could test the legal protections members of Congress have for their official conduct.<\/p>\n

The South Carolinian took to the House floor last month to accuse her ex-fiance<\/a>, Charleston businessman Patrick Bryant, and three other men of rape, sex trafficking and nonconsensually filming sex acts with her and others.<\/p>\n

Now Brian Musgrave, one of the other men Mace named on the House floor, is suing the member of Congress for defamation. <\/p>\n

In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in South Carolina, he categorically denied the allegations leveled against him by Mace \u2014 saying he was not present during any alleged events Mace described and did not “film” or “incapacitate” anyone \u2014 adding she \u201cand her team destroyed the lives\u201d of Musgrave and his family.<\/p>\n

The suit seeks<\/a> an unspecified award for compensatory and punitive damages to be determined by a jury \u201csufficient to impress upon the Defendant the seriousness of her conduct and to deter such similar conduct in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mace\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The legal action also seeks to carve out an exception from the speech or debate clause of the Constitution, which provides a legal shield for members of Congress for acts taken as part of their roles as lawmakers, including \u201cany Speech or Debate in either House.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clause \u201cdoes not transform the floor of Congress into a sanctuary for defamation, nor does it protect Congresswoman Mace\u2019s extra-Congressional defamatory statements surrounding her speech,\u201d Musgrave\u2019s suit asserts.<\/p>\n

His lawsuit also points to some of Mace\u2019s actions outside the House floor, including a draft of the speech circulating and posts on social media.<\/p>\n

In her February speech, Mace claimed she was speaking out because South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson had declined to act upon evidence of abuse that she said she provided. But the top state prosecutor said<\/a> Mace\u2019s accusations of improper conduct by his office were \u201ccategorically false,\u201d claiming the office had \u201cno knowledge\u201d of Mace\u2019s alleged assault until her speech on the House floor.<\/p>\n

Wilson and Mace are both considering bids for South Carolina governor in the state\u2019s 2026 election.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Mace\u2019s public speech, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division confirmed<\/a> that it is investigating Bryant. Bryant has categorically denied Mace\u2019s allegations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) is facing a defamation lawsuit filed by one of the four men she has publicly accused of sexual abuse in a floor speech, in a case that could test the legal protections members of Congress have for their official conduct. The South Carolinian took to the House floor last month to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}