An Iowa man whom Wyoming congressional candidate Reid Rasner is suing for defamation says he didn’t do anything wrong.
Michael “Mike” Leonard Cooley Jr. of Iowa admitted Thursday in a federal court filing answering Rasner’s March 20 lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming that he did call the candidate a “pedophile” in various Facebook comments under Rasner’s posts.
That was because of Cooley’s feelings toward President Donald Trump, whose causes Rasner touts, not from any knowledge or feeling toward Rasner, Cooley told Cowboy State Daily in a Friday phone interview.
Cooley described himself as a stay-at-home dad to twin 5-year-old boys who have autism.
“So, basically the Facebook algorithm led me to his reels,” Cooley said. “He seems like — Rasner seems like — he’s a cookie-cutter Trump cutout.”
Portions of the files associated with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein became public in recent months, revealing that Trump’s name appears in them.
Cooley said that connection prompted him to write comments on Rasner’s reels, which Rasner’s civil complaint outlines as: “This guy is a pedophile,” “This guy is a pedo creep,” and other similar variations.
“I didn’t even know there were other allegations with him,” said Cooley, referencing three other state-level lawsuits in which Rasner accuses four Wyoming people of defaming him with claims of sexual misconduct involving a teen.
Cooley said he has no connection to Wyoming. He’s a registered Democrat but not involved as a politician himself, he said.
Cooley added that he’d vote for a Republican if he felt the candidate addresses “real issues,” but he feels Rasner’s posts are merely inflammatory.
Cooley said he believes he exercised his First Amendment right by leaving the comments.
“There’s a lot more comments that are just like mine (on the reels),” said Cooley. “I don’t know why he picked me out personally.”
Cooley then theorized that the lawsuit against him is a broader “tactic to silence critics.”
The Faith Talk
In Wyoming’s state-level district court system, Rasner is suing former state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Cheyenne; former state Sen. Austin “Kit” Jennings, R-Casper; as well as Bar Nunn City Councilman Dan Sabrosky and Sabrosky’s ex-wife Michelle St. Louis.
All the lawsuits claim defamation, plus other civil counts.
Sabrosky's surfaced to public view as soon as he was served, as the process server approached the Bar Nunn City Council during its public comment period to announce he'd been instructed to serve Sabrosky at the City Council's meeting in March.
St. Louis told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that to her, at least part of Rasner’s complaint against her is an attack on her faith.
This echoes an April 3 Facebook post in which she wrote, "Never would I have thought that there would be a day I would have the opportunity to defend not only my faith in a court room, but Scripture, God’s Holy Word, as well."
Rasner has, conversely, asserted that Bouchard’s and St. Louis’ alleged defamation of him was persecution for his sexual orientation.
Rasner’s complaint against St. Louis says that under an outright false post by Bouchard, St. Louis invited people to message her to learn “my family’s experience with Rasner.”
She urged one person to keep his or her son “as far away from (Rasner) as possible,” says the complaint, adding that she called Rasner “creepy” and made other claims — which the complaint calls false and salacious — that have harmed Rasner’s business and repelled clients.
Rasner is a financial advisor. He’s lost around 20% of his customers, which he attributes “in part due to the publication and dissemination of false claims” by Sabrosky and St. Louis, according to his complaint.
“Luckily, Ms. St. Louis has not hid the reason she made such hateful statements about Mr. Rasner,” says the complaint. “Ms. St. Louis holds bigoted and antiquated views that Mr. Rasner’s sexuality ‘has blasphemed the name of God.’”
The complaint says St. Louis has made multiple posts attaching copies of Rasner’s marriage notice and divorce decree, “highlighting that the marriage was between two men.”
St. Louis told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that she holds a biblical view that homosexuality is a sin, rooted in Paul’s statements on the topic found in the New Testament.
Everyone is sinful, however, she added.
“He’ll throw scripture out on his page,” said St. Louis. “Well how can you say that — and all my worldview, based on the Bible — how can you call that bigoted and antiquated?”
St. Louis declined to say whether she’s filing a motion for the court to dismiss the lawsuit, saying she’s discussing the matter with her attorney.
“I think some of the things I’d said were made to be far more egregious than they actually were, in the claims in the (complaint),” she said. “Grossly mischaracterized.”
Rasner’s spokesman did not respond to requests for comment by publication Friday.
Those Videos
Rasner’s brief, bold Facebook videos course numerous topics, some Wyoming-centric, some national flashpoints.
He’s outspoken against his campaign opponent Secretary of State Chuck Gray, since Gray voted at least three times to approve wind farm leases on state lands, but has also become one of the state’s most vocal critics of wind farms.
Gray also voted to approve a Natrona County gravel mining project he later opposed publicly.
Rasner in his videos has floated such movements as a “no-more-fat-kids” movement in favor of reviving the presidential fitness test, a push against transgender-access bathroom policies, a vow to protect public lands, the push to “ban abortion nationwide,” and has launched the slogan “mine, baby mine” in defense of Wyoming coal.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
