The Iowa dad whom Wyoming congressional candidate Reid Rasner sued for defamation in March has apologized, and the case has settled, according to court and public documents.
Rasner’s other defamation lawsuits against four other people, all Wyoming residents, are still ongoing.
Mike Cooley is from Iowa and, uniquely, Rasner had sued him in federal court. Cooley admitted in an April court filing that he’d called Rasner “pedophile” in Facebook comments under Rasner’s posts. But he told Cowboy State Daily at that time he believed his comments should fall under free speech.
Nearly three months and at least two hearings passed.
The parties alerted the U.S. District Court for Wyoming of a “verbal notice of settlement” on July 2. The settlement and its terms have not been made public.
Rasner’s Facebook page on Friday linked to an affidavit by Cooley, signed July 3, in which Cooley said the basis of his comments “are untrue.”
Cooley said he’s never met Rasner, but he’d read “multiple social media posts and news articles accusing Reid Rasner of serious sexual misconduct.”
Cooley confirmed Friday to Cowboy State Daily that the affidavit Rasner posted is a true document, but he said he’s not able to comment on the settlement.
“When I read those posts and articles,” wrote Cooley in the affidavit, “I believed that the authors were making truthful statements regarding Mr. Rasner based on verified facts or personal knowledge.”
It is unclear what news stories might have accused Rasner of serious sexual misconduct. Cowboy State Daily has reported on Rasner’s other three lawsuits comprising four civil defendants. In one of those, where Rasner is suing former state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, Cowboy State Daily reported on documentation Bouchard entered in an attempt to cast his comments as supported.
“I now understand that the allegations against Mr. Rasner are untrue, not supported by any facts, and were made in an effort to harm his personal and professional reputation,” wrote Cooley in the affidavit.
Cooley doesn’t give the names of the people he says provided “untrue” information.
“I regret making social media posts accusing Mr. Rasner of misconduct and recognize that the posts were wholly false,” wrote Cooley, who added an apology to Rasner and anyone who took his own posts for truth.
Rasner’s campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a voicemail request for comment.
He ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Sen. John Barrasso in 2024 and now runs in a 10-person field for the GOP nomination to the state’s lone U.S. House seat.
Rep. Harriet Hageman is leaving that seat, and is running for U.S. Senate.
As part of his campaign, Rasner has an active social media presence and incorporates acting, humor, and numerous reel videos – a strategy that prompted some social media users to ask if his campaign is a parody.
But it is not, multiple politicos told Cowboy State Daily.
Rasner said during Cowboy State Daily’s Morning Show With Jake that those tactics help people notice him and thereby introduce them to his more serious, policy-related content.
Meanwhile
Meanwhile, Rasner’s three other defamation cases press on in the state-level court.
A Casper-based judge ruled Wednesday that his case against former state lawmaker Austin “Kit” Jennings has cleared its initial hurdle and is at least viable enough to proceed to the evidence-swapping phase.
Another judge overseeing Rasner’s case against Bouchard has set a hearing for September, to consider whether Bouchard is correct to pull a news outlet, WyoFile, into the case to share potential culpability with him.
WyoFile has maintained that the outlet “hasn’t defamed anyone” and that the notion that it’s “somehow responsible for Anthony Bouchard’s speech is absurd.”
Rasner is suing Dan Sabrosky and Sabrosky’s ex-wife, Michelle St. Louis.
St. Louis has told Cowboy State Daily and others that she believes this case is an attack on her religious faith. That’s because Rasner’s complaint both alleges and laments that St. Louis had said Rasner “has blasphemed the name of God” due to his sexual orientation.
That’s not the first time Rasner’s sexual orientation has factored into his defamation cases. He told Cowboy State Daily when he first sued Bouchard that he believed Bouchard had maligned him for being gay.
St. Louis has taken her concerns to lawmakers, urging them in May to pass anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuits against public participation) laws.
In The Political Arena
Cooley told Cowboy State Daily in April that he insulted Rasner because of Cooley’s feelings toward President Donald Trump, whose causes Rasner touts, not from any knowledge or feeling toward Rasner.
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 the months before the lawsuit, 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 the other lawsuits.
Cooley said he has no connection to Wyoming. He’s a registered Democrat but not involved as a politician himself, he said.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
