Craig sues Slater, Stringer, Williams
Trio of new lawsuits from former Conservative Party leader.
Colin Craig talks about his coming defamation action on NBR Radio and on-demand on MyNBR Radio.
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Hawke’s Bay
See also: Bloggers laugh off Colin Craig’s defamation allegations and ‘Slater will pay the price for crossing the line’ – Colin Craig
At a press conference in Auckland, Colin Craig has announced defamation actions against Whaleoil blogger Cameron Slater, Taxpayers' Union executive director Jordan Williams and Conservative Party board member John Stringer.
Mr Craig says he will seek $300,000 in damages against Mr Williams, $600,000 from Mr Stringer and $650,000 from Mr Slater – who he collectively labelled "the dirty politics brigade."
He says the three men can expect to have formal letters from his legal team within the next 48 hours.
Mr Craig says there are “literally hundreds of allegations” he and his legal team will be looking into.
The recently resigned Conservative Party leader says he has emails between Mr Slater and Mr Stringer. He did “nothing illegal” to get them, he says.
He will also be releasing a booklet, Dirty Politics and Hidden Agendas, that outlines the "campaign of defamatory lies" he claims was purposely launched to undermine him.
In the booklet, Mr Craig alleges Messrs Slater, Williams and Stringer led a co-ordinated attack on Mr Craig.
“There has been a campaign of defamatory lies to undermine my public standing.”
He says the booklet will address some of the false claims made against him, including that he sexually harassed one or more persons.
“Let me be very clear, I have never sexually harassed anybody and claims I have done are false.”
Mr Stringer led a move to suspend Mr Craig from the Conservative Party, although Mr Craig disputed the decision, claiming an earlier constitutional move had suspended Mr Stringer.
Infighting has seen the Conservatives flatline in the most recent polls. A 3News-Reid Research survey gave the party 0.7% support, while a One News-Colmar Brunton poll put it on zero.
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Jason Walls and NBR staff
Wed, 29 Jul 2015
Wed, 29 Jul 2015
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Craig sues Slater, Stringer, Williams
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