In its fight against Dominion’s defamation lawsuit, MAGA cable channel Newsmax is trying to drag into court Father Alexander Karloutsos, a well-known Greek Orthodox priest honored by President Joe Biden in 2022, demanding to see any of his texts related to the voting systems firm.
The right-wing outlet recently subpoenaed Karloutsos, popularly known as “Father Alex,” to testify and provide evidence in a deposition. And the priest’s lawyers responded this week with a petition to quash the subpoena, accusing Newsmax of harassing their client by seeking “all communications” he’s had with anyone about Dominion, calling it an overbroad, unduly burdensome, and improper “fishing expedition.”
Reps for neither Karloutsos nor Newsmax responded to requests for comment.
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Karloutsos, 78, who retired in 2021 as the vicar general of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, was issued the subpoena on Oct. 27. The New York County Supreme Court filing ordered the priest, a Southampton native, to appear at the Manhattan offices of Newsmax’s counsel Duane Morris LLP and sit for a deposition in the Dominion case.
The subpoena further commands the retired clergyman to produce all personal documentation related to any conversations he’s had with any person “concerning Dominion or allegations of misconduct in connection with voting machines used in the 2020 Presidential Election.” Dominion Voting Systems is currently suing Newsmax for $1.6 billion over the network’s false on-air claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” by the company’s “rigged” machines.
Karloutsos’ attorney George Sitaras asked the court in a Monday filing to toss out Newsmax’s request on multiple grounds. The network’s subpoena is “facially defective,” the lawyer wrote, because “it fails to state the circumstances or reasons” why it is demanding the priest’s testimony. Newsmax claimed that Karloutsos’ evidence and testimony would produce relevant information to the Dominion case, but the priest’s lawyers retorted that the network hasn’t offered a “shred of detail” as to what information they seek or why Karloutsos needs to provide any of his communications.
Furthermore, Father Alex’s lawyer suggested, the Newsmax subpoena seems to be an act of desperation. “It is clear from the information sought in the Subpoena that Newsmax is improperly using the Subpoena for the purpose of seeking general discovery, or to ascertain the existence of evidence, rather than identifying specific documents that are relevant and material to the facts at issue in the lawsuit,” he wrote. “The Subpoena is also overbroad and unduly burdensome that it seeks any communications between Father Alex and any person or entity that he may have ever mentioned Dominion to, even though Dominion and the Delaware Action, which were the subject of countless news reports and media attention.”
“Even assuming” that Father Alex had direct communications related to the Dominion lawsuit, Karloutsos’ lawyer continued, such conversations would be protected by the state’s clergy privilege law.
Newsmax is seeking “utterly irrelevant” information, Sitaras concluded, as Father Alex doesn’t know anything of “any bearing or relevance” to the case, and “any communications he may have received from a party or witness in the case can easily be obtained from those people or entities.” Besides asking the court to quash the subpoena, Sitaras is also requesting a protective order be issued as well since Newsmax has refused to voluntarily withdraw.
The right-wing cable outlet has never made clear why it believes Karloutsos is relevant to the Dominion case, though his ties to the voting firm’s CEO and to Newsmax’s top bogeyman, President Joe Biden, may provide clues.
Days after Fox News settled its Dominion lawsuit for a whopping $787.5 million, John Poulos, the Greek-Canadian chief executive of Dominion, told a Greek-language news outlet that the famous priest called him shortly after the 2020 election.
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“Father Alex reached out to me in those dark days when I was attacked at the end of 2020 and with his incredible foresight he provided me with great strength that helped both me and the company to face the attacks,” Poulos recalled. “Our customers, our colleagues and our families have been so supportive, and most notably, they have stood by us even though they paid a high price to be supportive. We are so grateful to them!”
Or perhaps Newsmax is roping Karloutsos into its legal troubles because of his stature among the Biden family—a connection that has been noted in the past by other right-wing outlets.
The New York Post, for instance, has repeatedly attempted to tie Karloutsos to Hunter Biden’s “shady” business dealings, reporting that the priest’s son Michael appeared at a 2015 dinner featuring Hunter’s Burisma business partners. Joe Biden, then-vice president, also briefly appeared at the dinner, which has been touted by Republicans as proof the president was involved in a foreign influence-peddling scheme with his family.
After Karloutsos was tapped to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022, the Post once again trained its focus on the priest’s connections to the president and his son.
“The beloved spiritual leader and his family are close to the Bidens—so close that Karloutsos’ son Michael reportedly attended an infamous 2015 DC dinner arranged by then-second son Hunter Biden that included Joe Biden and, according to emails and a photo, business associates from Ukraine, Kazakhstan and possibly Russia,” the Post reported at the time.
And earlier this year, when Karloutsos was a featured guest at a White House event celebrating Greek independence, the Post published an article about Biden supposedly making a “Freudian slip” to the “Hunter-linked clergyman.” During the event, the president said, “I’m going to ruin your reputation by talking” while introducing Father Alex, prompting the Post to devote an entire piece to Karloutsos’ tangential involvement with the 2015 dinner.
Newsmax’s beef with the famous father comes as Dominion’s billion-dollar lawsuit against the outlet has begun to heat up and is set to go to trial this coming September.
Judge Eric Davis, the same Delaware judge who oversaw Dominion’s Fox News case, ruled earlier this month that the voting machines firm is entitled to review the personal text messages and emails of Newsmax hosts and reporters. Dominion’s ability to obtain communications from Fox News employees revealed how many of the network’s stars and executives didn’t actually believe Trump’s election lies even as Fox was trumpeting them on air.
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