Freedom Foundation Sued for Exposing JZ Knight, Politicians

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Freedom Foundation Sued for Exposing JZ Knight, Politicians

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Freedom Foundation Sued for Exposing JZ Knight, Politicians
A preliminary hearing on Knight’s request for a temporary restraining order to keep the videos secret is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday, May 21, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Tacoma.
May 20, 2014

Jeff Rhodes Managing Editor

“When it comes to sheer, unadorned racism, Donald Sterling can’t hold a candle to JZ Knight.”

JZ Knight is desperately trying to suppress videos that show her making bizarre, bigoted statements in order to protect the politicians she supports and allow them to continue deceiving the public.
On Friday, Knight filed a suit against the Freedom Foundation, an Olympia-based think and action tank, for submitting a DVD of her controversial statements to the Thurston County commissioners.
“State law protects citizens from any liability for submitting information to a government agency,” said Trent England, a Freedom Foundation attorney. “And federal courts have protected disclosures exactly like this, where an important public issue was at stake. In this case, the issue is politicians accepting support from a bigot and then both parties lying about it.”
When the videos first surfaced two years ago, several political candidates and the Washington State Democratic Party were forced to repudiate Knight and give away contributions she had made to their campaigns.
One, Thurston County Commissioner Sandra Romero, described Knight’s videotaped statements as “vile, racist and divisive…. (T)hese hateful comments are the complete opposite of everything I stand for. I denounce them. I condemn them.”
(Still online is video of Knight’s previous endorsement of Romero.)
Knight, who claims she is able to “channel” the spirit of a 35,000-year-old warrior named Ramtha, operates the Ramtha School of Enlightenment from a sprawling compound in Yelm.
Despite the still-simmering controversy, earlier this year the Thurston County Democratic Party, a group that supports Romero and over which she has considerable influence, voted unanimously to accept another $65,000 contribution from Knight.
Thurston Democrat County Chairman Roger Erskine later defended Knight as “a very good, strong Democrat.”
Romero, meanwhile, has reversed her earlier position, now saying of Knight, “I don’t believe she’s a bigot.”
Knight, Romero and other public figures also claimed the videos had been altered in some way to make them appear more damaging.
To disprove to these allegations, the Freedom Foundation submitted DVDs of the relevant clips lifted from the longer video to the Thurston County commissioners.
“When it comes to sheer, unadorned racism, Donald Sterling can’t hold a candle to JZ Knight,” England said, “and I think government is more important even than the NBA.
“The Freedom Foundation released clips of the JZ Knight videos to give officials and the public the truth,” he said. “Knight wants to hide the truth, but I trust the federal courts will see through her frivolous claims.”

A preliminary hearing on Knight’s request for a temporary restraining order to keep the videos secret is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday, May 21, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Tacoma.

Freedom Foundation Sued for Exposing JZ Knight, Politicians |

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Democrats again under fire over JZ Knight donations | Politics Northwest | Seattle
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Re: Freedom Foundation Sued for Exposing JZ Knight, Politici

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Judge Denies JZ Knight’s Request to Suppress Vulgar Videos
May 23, 2014

Jeff Rhodes
Managing Editor
A Tacoma judge declined her motion for temporary restraining order, saying there's no compelling evidence that Knight would be likely to prevail when lawsuit heard
JZ Knight suffered a procedural setback on Wednesday when a Tacoma judge denied her motion to keep videos on which she makes racist statements under wraps until a larger copyright infringement lawsuit is resolved.

U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle said Knight’s attorneys failed to show there was a substantial likelihood she would prevail on the merits of the case during the regular trial or that she would be irreparably harmed if the videos were not immediately suppressed.

“There isn’t sufficient evidence to persuade this court of either of those things,” he said.

The highlight of the hearing came when Settle ruled the videos could be played in the courtroom -- over the vehement objections of Knight's legal team.

Knight, who claims she can channel a 35,000-year-old warrior named Ramtha and operates the Ramtha School for Enlightenment from a walled compound in Yelm, last week filed suit against the Freedom Foundation, an Olympia-based conservative think tank, and Freedom Foundation staff member Glen Morgan, along with his wife, an eighth-grade teacher with no other ties to the case.

Morgan first acquired the damaging videos from an anonymous source two years ago. Recorded during an online webcast, the videos show Knight engaged in a series of obscenity-laced rants directed at Catholics, gays, Mexicans and other minority groups.

When the material was made public in 2012, the Washington State Democratic Party repudiated her comments and diverted a $70,000 donation from Knight to another liberal organization.

Several individual candidates, such as Thurston County Commissioner Sandra Romero, U.S. Rep. Denny Heck and legislative candidate Bruce Lackney — all Democrats — also returned campaign donations from Knight.

The issue cropped up again several weeks ago, when it was discovered that the Thurston County Democratic Party had voted to accept a new $65,000 donation from Knight. When confronted about its decision, the party chair, Roger Erskine, suggested the videos might have been edited -- an allegation Romero and others had made when they first surfaced two years ago.

Knight’s lead attorney, Andrea McNeeley, was particularly incensed that Morgan chose to answer that charge by taking the tapes to a Thurston County commissioners meeting, where they were entered into the public record.

“That was nothing but a deliberate attempt to launder them through the public disclosure laws,” she said. “His purpose was to embarrass JZ Knight and embarrass Democrats. But that doesn’t entitle him to take proprietary information and disseminate it.”

McNeeley said the videos were lifted from a copyrighted webcast and every viewer who watched it online signed a nondisclosure agreement that prevented them from sharing the content. She also accused Morgan or the source who forwarded the clips to him of “carefully selecting the most provocative moments of the presentation” to make Knight look foolish.

“JZ Knight offers a complex, integrated, ongoing program that includes a counseling component,” she said. “What she does may be outside most people’s comfort zone, but it is of great value to her many clients.”

Attorney Michelle Earl Hubbard, representing both Morgan and the Freedom Foundation, countered that the entire cache of videotapes includes 17 hours of material.

“Of course it was edited for length,” she said. “But that doesn’t change the nature of what’s on the 42 minutes of video that was released.”

Earl Hubbard said Knight can’t accuse Morgan of doctoring the tapes or showing the scenes out of context and then deny him an opportunity to show otherwise by suppressing them entirely.

“He used only what was needed,” she said. “That’s the essence of fair use.”

Earl Hubbard refuted claims by the plaintiffs that the videos had been posted online a few weeks, noting that they’d first been posted more than two years ago. She also denied the videos were distributed to “retaliate” against Knight for supporting Democratic candidates and causes.

“The Freedom Foundation is nonpartisan organization,” she said. “Had a Republican taken money from someone who said what JZ Knight did, it would call on them to explain it, too.”

Settle stressed that Wednesday’s preliminary hearing would only deal with Knight’s request for a temporary restraining order and would not consider the larger questions of copyright infringement and fair use.

He encouraged Knight’s lawyers to pursue a temporary injunction if they still wanted to attempt to suppress the videos; they said they expected to file for one within a week.

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Re: Freedom Foundation Sued for Exposing JZ Knight, Politici

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JZK, Inc., Freedom Foundation Spar Over Discovery, Declarations

Friday, August 8 2014
by Steven Wyble
swyble@yelmonline.com http://www.YelmOnline.com

JZK, Inc. and the Freedom Foundation continue to argue in court over discovery, declarations and motions for summary judgment.

The lawsuit stems from videos of JZK, Inc. President JZ Knight, purportedly channeling 35,000-year-old Lemurian warrior Ramtha, making disparaging remarks about Catholics, gays, Jewish people and Mexicans. Glen Morgan, an employee of the Freedom Foundation think tank, gave copies of the video on DVDs to the Thurston County Commissioners.

JZK, Inc. is seeking a court order compelling the Freedom Foundation to provide discovery materials as they pursue the lawsuit.

The Freedom Foundation contends the materials being sought by JZK, Inc. are privileged.

JZK, Inc. contends the materials they’re seeking aren’t privileged and that they’ve demonstrated the discovery is necessary.

The company states in court documents they have established the recording in question is copyrightable, and they need to seek discovery to “determine the extent of Defendants’ infringement on Plaintiff’s copyright protections. This discovery is entirely relevant to the claims and defenses at issue in this case.

“Defendants have asserted claims of First Amendment privilege in response to questions seeking disclosure of the number of sources of the Plaintiff’s video materials, websites where Defendants contend the video can be accessed, and details of the sources of the video in Defendants’ possession. Defendants support their claims of First Amendment protection with just the sort of ‘broad allegations or subjective fears’ courts caution against. Defendants have not met their burden, but even if they could, Plaintiffs’ discovery requests seek relevant information and are permissibly narrow.”

JZK, Inc. argues the Freedom Foundation cannot claim journalistic privilege and, even if they could, the company can overcome that privilege because the information they’re seeking can’t reasonably be obtained from other sources and is an important facet of their claims.

JZK, Inc. has also moved for partial summary judgment.

The Freedom Foundation argues in court documents that JZK, Inc. has failed to bring forth admissible evidence, and that the company’s summary judgment movement should be denied, while the Freedom Foundation’s should be granted.

The foundation claims the company hasn’t established the video in question was published in a fixed form and copyrightable.

While the company argues the video was fixed in a digital form, the Foundation contends “there is nothing in the record to indicate that the Plaintiffs’ copyright registration matches a work upon which the Defendants infringed.”

Further, the foundation alleges the work registered by JZK, Inc. with the U.S. Copyright Office are made of one of the video excerpts Morgan submitted on DVD to the Thurston County Commissioners.

“It is abundantly clear Plaintiffs have not met their burden of proving Knight created a video of the March 31, 2011, event, and the registration they obtained from the U.S. Copyright Office was not for such a video and was not honestly obtained,” the foundation states. Therefore, the company “cannot meet their burden of proving a valid copyright registration applies for any video images,” the foundation argues.

The foundation is seeking to strike a declaration by Mike Wright, an employee of JZK, Inc., arguing that it is “inadmissible for summary judgment.”

The foundation states Wright has no personal knowledge whether the company stored copies of the video footage in question.

“It is not a question of whether or not Defendants believe the witness has personal knowledge,” the foundation states. “It is a requirement that the declarant demonstrate he or she has personal knowledge. Plaintiffs do not cure those flaws with their opposition.”

“Wright’s own testimony shows he lacks personal knowledge and certainty of facts attested as he cannot say whether ‘all’ events are recorded or just whether they ‘typically’ are. Nor can he lawfully testify that someone else directed the recording to occur,” court documents state.

The company argues the foundation’s motion to strike is “procedurally improper.” They also argue Wright’s declaration is admissible in its entirety.

“Mr. Wright’s personal knowledge can be easily inferred from his positions with JZK, Inc. … Moreover, at several points in Mr. Wright’s declaration, he provides further foundation for his personal knowledge of specific events.”

JZK, Inc., Freedom Foundation Spar Over Discovery, Declarations - Nisqually Valley News: Local News

http://www.yelmonline.com/news/local_ne ... f887a.html
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Re: Freedom Foundation Sued for Exposing JZ Knight, Politici

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There is an old saying about, "you get what you give." Sooner or later Knight is going to slip up and spout off as her own, some purloined material from a source who is not dead or paid off by Knight. Then RSE will get a chance to get a taste of what it is like when a multinational publishing company lawyers up and demands its due.

Knight appears to have gotten away with ripping off wholesale Vera Stanley Alder's writings for a lot of the basics that Knight lectures in the guise of the Ramtha character. I believe Knight may be a sociopath and really believes the material is her own or just doesn't care. RSE and Knight also take heavily from the ufology and popular junk science circuit. I have a feeling that sooner or later Knight is going to forget and start quoting a living author's literature as her own. Some of the ufology authors are under contract with large publishers with deep financial resources and plenty of lawyers with Ivy League credentials.

I believe Knight and RSE have over inflated opinions of themselves and their lawyers - they have had lucky breaks and gone up against people lacking infinite finances. RSE and Knight will get schooled if they go up against a big corporate foe.
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