Forums / Political & Legal / Justice Dept. attorney: Murtha should be immune from Haditha lawsuit

By Doug Powers • April 23, 2009 01:58 PM
It looks as if justice may once again prevail… for John Murtha. For the troops he defamed, probably not so much:

A Justice Department attorney said U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., should be immune from a defamation lawsuit filed by a former Marine from western Pennsylvania.

Essentially, Murtha’s attorney said the lawsuit filed in September by Justin Sharratt, of Canonsburg, should be dismissed for the same reasons that a federal appeals court struck down a similar suit by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., last week.

The court ruled that Murtha couldn’t be sued because he was acting within the scope of his employment when he accused Wuterich’s squad of killing innocent civilians “in cold blood” in Haditha, Iraq in 2005.
Ah to be a member of Congress, where the “scope of your employment” is ruining the scope of somebody else’s employment in a consequence-free environment.