A Florida judge has denied an attempt by the former T-Mobile chief executive John Legere to dismiss a $100m defamation suit brought against him by a businessman with ties to people in Donald Trump’s orbit.
The decision by the judge, Will Thomas, means the suit filed by Grant Cardone can proceed to trial, for now. The suit argues Legere leveled attacks on Cardone’s business and his political and religious beliefs on social media.
Cardone filed the defamation suit in January in state court in Florida, after vocal Trump critic Legere allegedly made false and inflammatory comments in a heated public exchange on the app Clubhouse in 2023 and separately in replies on Twitter.
The case has become a cause célèbre among some of Trump’s advisers and allies, in part because of Cardone’s links to the former president and the apparent eagerness inside Trump’s orbit to see antagonists punished by the legal system.
Some close to Trump see the case as a paradigm example of conservatives coming under siege – and needing to fight back – as Trump goes on trial in New York, people familiar with the dynamic said.
Cardone filed his suit after warning Legere publicly and privately that he would launch legal action if Legere persisted in making comments he says were false.
The suit alleges Legere made a series of defamatory statements, including calling Cardone “a bullshit artist and sales and marketing guy who is always selling something” in 2021 and suggesting he misrepresented his net worth to investors, saying “by the way, he’s not a billionaire” in 2023.
Cardone also alleged Legere’s comments were made with actual malice – the key legal standard – because he continued his attacks even as he suggested in one Clubhouse debate that it appeared as though Cardone was trying to entrap him into making defamatory statements.
The suit claimed Legere’s comments caused material financial harm to Cardone. After the sustained attacks, according to a person close to Cardone, his companies lost business to the tune of roughly $100m, while some people he was trying to recruit backed out of deals.
Cardone, a New York Times bestselling author who appeared on the show Undercover Billionaire, has for years been a consistent Trump supporter. A Trump spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment about the extent of their ties.
In February, Cardone and his wife set up a GoFundMe crowdfunding effort to help defray some of Trump’s legal costs after Trump was found liable for fraudulently inflating his assets and ordered to pay a judgment that ultimately totaled roughly $500m.
The fundraiser, which has raised just over $2m, came after Trump was the headline speaker at Cardone’s 10X Growth Conference in Hollywood in March 2022. Trump appeared for a one-hour fireside chat with Cardone, where he raised grievances, including the false claim that the 2020 election had been stolen.
