- The video discusses a lawsuit filed against comedian John Oliver and his show Last Week Tonight by Bob Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy Corporation, a coal company.
- The lawsuit was dropped after over two years of litigation.
- The video highlights the concept of SLAPP suits (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation), which are frivolous lawsuits designed to stifle public debate and dissent.
- The video mentions that President Trump has also been involved in SLAPP suits, such as his defamation lawsuit against journalist Tim O'Brien.
- SLAPP suits can be used to silence not only journalists but also citizen activists.

- The company behind a landfill sued four members of a community group for $30 million, causing fear among residents.
- The ACLU stepped in to help the residents and the lawsuit was voluntarily withdrawn.
- Slap suits are widely considered a problem and 30 states have anti-slap laws.
- However, 20 states do not have these laws, allowing plaintiffs to file suits in those states.
- Bob Murray, the chairman of the country's largest private coal company, has a history of suing journalists and critics.
- Murray's lawsuits have a chilling effect on reporting and criticism of his business.
- Murray has been accused of workplace misconduct, including harassment and creating a hostile work environment.
- These lawsuits have not received widespread coverage, possibly due to fear of being sued by Murray.
- Effective anti-slap laws are needed to deter powerful individuals from using lawsuits to silence dissent.

- The speaker is standing behind their previous piece and will continue to stand against Bob Murray's attempts to silence them.
- The judge in their case stated that jokes are protected and cannot be understood as conveying facts.
- The speaker refrains from making further comments about Bob Murray but instead sings a song about him.
- The song includes exaggerated and fictional claims about Bob Murray's actions.
- The speaker encourages others to join in and express their opinions about Bob Murray.
- The speaker concludes by saying "eat shit" to Bob Murray and ends the performance.

- The video discusses a lawsuit against comedian John Oliver and his show Last Week Tonight by Bob Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy Corporation, a coal company.
- The lawsuit was dropped after over two years of litigation.
- The video highlights SLAPP suits, which are frivolous lawsuits designed to stifle public debate and dissent.
- SLAPP suits can be used to silence journalists and citizen activists.
- The ACLU helped residents in a lawsuit against a landfill company.
- 30 states have anti-SLAPP laws, but 20 states do not.
- Bob Murray has a history of suing journalists and critics, which has a chilling effect on reporting and criticism.
- Effective anti-SLAPP laws are needed to deter powerful individuals from using lawsuits to silence dissent.
- The speaker stands behind their previous piece and sings a song about Bob Murray, encouraging others to express their opinions about him.

After winning a legal battle involving a coal executive and a giant squirrel, John Oliver explains how SLAPP suits are designed to stifle public dissent.

Connect with Last Week Tonight online... 

Subscribe to the Last Week Tonight YouTube channel for more almost news as it almost happens: www.youtube.com/lastweektonight 

Find Last Week Tonight on Facebook like your mom would: www.facebook.com/lastweektonight 

Follow us on Twitter for news about jokes and jokes about news: www.twitter.com/lastweektonight 

Visit our official site for all that other stuff at once: www.hbo.com/lastweektonight

The reason the sentence, Greta Thunberg allegedly killed Jeffrey Epstein, has the word allegedly in it.

And, look, we'll get to the main substance of our story in a little bit, but before we do, I actually need to give you a quick update on something.

You may remember that in 2017, we aired a piece on the coal industry that touched on this man, Bob Murray, the then CEO of Murray Energy, the largest privately held coal company in America.

In our piece, we discussed his closeness to President Trump, his company's lawsuits to block a rule intended to limit miners' exposure to coal dust, and his insistence that a deadly 2007 mine collapse was the result of a naturally occurring earthquake, something decidedly at odds with a government investigation which found that it was caused by unauthorized mining practices.

Now, before the show went out, Murray's attorneys had sent us 2 separate letters warning us that if we aired the story, he would sue.

And threatening that, Home Box Office is in for the fight of its existence.

Which, look, might actually be true, but not because of his lawsuit.

It's because Game of Thrones prequels, including Game of Thrones The College Years, Game of Thrones Winterfell Valley High, and Throne Babies Battle for the Rattle, won't be out for at least a year.

-♪ It's gonna be fine ♪ -♪ It's gonna be fine ♪ Well...

Well, you may know, we went ahead with the story anyway, and this happened.

Comedian John Oliver is the target of a lawsuit by 1 of the country's largest privately owned coal companies.

Oliver strongly criticized Murray Energy Corporation and CEO Robert Murray Sunday on his HBO show Last Night Week...

Bob Murray sued us after that episode of Last Night Week, Last Week Tonight's aired.

Although, and this is true, that's not the title of our show.

And frankly, I expect better from an esteemed program like CBS Morning Night This Morning.

Hey, you fuck up our name, we fuck up yours.

Now, that was over 2 years ago, and ever since, because the case has been in litigation, we haven't been able to discuss it.

But Recently, Murray actually dropped the lawsuit.

I can finally tell you exactly what happened, which is honestly worth doing.

Not only because it's a crazy story, but because it actually points to a much bigger problem here.

But first, a little background on the lawsuit itself.

In it, Murray listed what he found objectionable in our piece, including that we described him as someone who looks like a geriatric Dr.

And also that we arranged for a staff member to dress up in a squirrel costume and deliver the message, -"Eat shit, Bob." -$HITBOB.

And I actually don't even remember that happening.

Can we just quickly, can we just for a moment check the tape?

That eat shit check was actually a reference to a real thing that 1 of Murray's miners wrote on a bonus check that he received.

The background to that story was that Murray had implemented a bonus program to his miners based on the amount of coal they extracted.

His workers' union objected to that, believing it would have an adverse impact on safety in the mines.

And when Murray did it anyway, the miner returned his bonus check, off, by the way, $3.22, with the words, -"Eat shit, Bob," written on it.

And the company tried to fire him for that, which seems pretty excessive.

Maybe that message was just an invitation to eat at Shit Bob, the Airport Express version of Bob Evans.

Need a slick biscuit and some soggy sausage slop before your flight, then you have got to...

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit...

♪ -♪ Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit...

Anyway, Murray's lawsuit against us asked for damages because he claimed that nothing has ever stressed him more than our, quote, vicious and untruthful attack.

Which is an odd thing to say, given that, as I just mentioned, he oversaw a company whose mine collapse in Utah resulted in the deaths of 9 people.

It went on to say that we attacked Murray in a forum in which he had no opportunity to defend himself, which is just not how anything works.

And besides, after launching his lawsuit, Murray did defend himself, and very publicly.

This is a tragedy, and American businessmen had better take note as to what they are trying to do with me, a guy who's done nothing in his life, but follow the law, create jobs, and do everything I could, as best I could for our country.

Hey, hey, hey, Bob, I think evil is a bit much there.

Look, you can say a lot of things about me.

For instance, that I look like a toucan who can't sleep without a nightlight.

Or that my voice sounds like Jude Law if he had a kazoo stuck in his throat.

But Evil seems like a bit of an exaggeration.

Now, obviously, the lawsuit was a bullshit effort to silence us, perhaps best exemplified by a motion that Murray filed to try and get a gag order to prevent us from rebroadcasting the story or even having it up online.

And for the record, the piece is still on the Internet, big time, and you can actually find it at stillontheinternetbigtime.com.

So, it was no surprise when the case was dismissed by the West Virginia judge who heard it last February.

And at that point, we figured this whole saga was over, right?

Because Murray then filed an appeal to the West Virginia Supreme Court.

1 of the judges set to hear our case was Justice Alan Loughrey.

And that name, weirdly, rang something of a bell for us.

And then we remembered that in 2015, we actually did a segment on elected judges that commented on 1 of his campaign ads.

Hi, I'm Alan Loughrey, and I'm running for our Supreme Court.

My wife, Kelly Loughrey, and our son, Justice Loughrey.

I call my son Justice, I call my dog Preamble, and I call my penis the gavel.

As far as things to say about a judge before he makes a ruling on your case goes, claiming that he calls his penis the gavel is maybe not the best choice.

Even though, look at him, he clearly does.

So, we were naturally pretty concerned at this point, but then in a bizarre twist, all 4 justices of the state Supreme Court, including Justice Loughrie, were impeached in a scandal over inappropriate spending.

So our case wound up just sitting there for over a year until a few months ago when, out of nowhere, Murray's team offered to drop their lawsuit.

In possibly related news, Murray Energy recently announced it will be reorganizing under bankruptcy, though you should know Bob Murray will remain the company's chairman.

But we did wonder, what was the point of him putting us through all of this in the first place?

Well, I would argue it's because winning the case was never really his goal.

And that brings us to the larger issue that we're gonna talk about tonight, SLAPP suits.

SLAPP is an acronym that stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation.

These are frivolous suits with no legal merit, specifically designed to stifle public debate or dissent.

And Murray is not alone in seemingly using lawsuits to punish and intimidate his critics.

In fact, 1 of his good friends has openly called for changes that would make it easier to file them.

I'm gonna open up our libel laws, so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.

So we're gonna open up those libel laws, folks, and we're gonna have people sue you like you never got sued before.

It's true, Trump has been as enthusiastic about opening up libel laws as he's been unenthusiastic about opening up a birthday present from Tiffany.

Look, I know it's a tie, you know it's a tie, the only thing that isn't a tie is how much I love my daughters.

Trump is famously litigious, and has launched a number of what I would argue are slapsuits.

For instance, when journalist Tim O'Brien reported in a book that sources close to Trump claimed his net worth was much lower than he claimed and only somewhere between 150 to 250 million, Trump did not take that well.

When the book came out, he didn't feel very good about it, and he ultimately sued me for defamation.

I think it's the biggest libel lawsuit in U.S.

Trump sued that man for 5000000000 dollars.

That means if Trump had won that lawsuit, he would have been worth 5200000000.0 dollars.

But look, Trump lost, of course, and afterward, he openly admitted that he knew he couldn't win, saying, I did it to make his life miserable, which I'm happy about.

Because in Trump's heart, he's just a vindictive bad man.

He's the kind of guy who thinks the movie Sophie's Choice is about a woman who got to give up 1 of her children.

But Trump's statement there actually gets to the key characteristic of slapsuits.

The whole point is to put the defendant through a difficult, painful experience.

And even if cases fail in lower courts, as they often do, The plaintiffs can find ways to extend them through intensive discovery requests, depositions, and appeals that drain the target's time and resources.

And alarmingly, journalists are not the only ones targeted with slapsuits.

In some cases, they can be used to silence citizen activists.

Take the residents of Uniontown, Alabama.

After a waste disposal company agreed to store toxic coal ash in a landfill near their homes, some members of a local group posted about their concerns on their Facebook page.

But in 2016, the company behind the landfill sued 4 members of the group for $30 million, which is a ridiculous amount to sue anyone for, let alone people living in a community where the median household income is just $14,000.

Although, to be fair, the attorney representing the landfill claimed that that $30 million figure wasn't actually as bad as it sounds.

There were 2 counts, but they each contained 15.

Or you could say it's 5 counts of $6 million.

Or 3000000000 counts, each containing 1 cent.

Now, thankfully, after the ACLU stepped in to help the residents defend themselves, the company voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit, but the experience clearly left its mark on the community.

It has scared a lot of people in this area for speaking up.

Because those individuals are afraid to get their backlash, not knowing that that's just a scare tactic to get you to leave things alone so they can continue their power and control to do what they want to do.

But the problem with scare tactics is that they work.

Because things that could hurt you are scary.

The only people who aren't scared of anything look like this.

Able to feel joy because he believes, more than literally anything in the world, that his soul has been liberated from 75 million year old alien spirits that a psychiatrist helped paralyze under the pretense of income tax inspections.

-♪ ♪ -♪ The thing is, pretty much everyone, from judges to legal scholars, agrees that slap suits are a scourge.

That is why 30 states have some form of anti-slap laws, which vary significantly, but broadly, can enable defendants to force plaintiffs to justify their claim early on.

And if they can't do that, the case is not only dismissed, but in some states, the defendant is then awarded attorney's fees.

Now, when they are well-crafted, these laws can strike an important balance between protecting legitimate claims and deterring time-wasting bullshit.

The problem is, 20 states don't have those laws.

And with no federal anti-SLAPP legislation, plaintiffs can simply file a suit in 1 of those states.

And that is actually where Bob Murray sued us, despite the fact that neither he nor I live there.

And we are far from the only critics that he's sued over the years.

It's not the first time Murray has sued a journalist for coverage he saw unfavorably.

According to The Washington Post, he's filed at least 9 lawsuits against journalists and their news organizations between 2001 and 2015 for reports they saw as critical.

Since Murray likes to sue, we're not gonna say another word about...

Now, I get, I get that he is clearly joking there, but that is also the exact culture of fear that Murray may be trying to create here.

Lawsuits like his make people think twice before reporting on his business, or pointing things out, like the fact that Bob Murray's general facial expression answers the question, what would it look like if an egg was mentally undressing you?

And I would argue some of Murray's suits have clearly been attempts to bully people into silence, sometimes over incredibly trivial slights.

He sued an editorial cartoonist over this unflattering cartoon of him, which is just pathetic.

You think I'm gonna go to court over this thing that I found online?

Which appears to be me presenting a teared cake made with syringes, condoms, and broken glass.

I can only assume that's a metaphor for this show, in which case, nailed it, no notes.

-♪ No notes ♪ -♪ No notes ♪ Murray...

Murray has also sued this couple, James and Lisa Ciocia.

In 2012, they held a short protest outside Murray Energy's Ohio headquarters with only about 20 people marching around.

And that has to be the least intimidating protest I have ever seen.

It's less a protest and more an inter-office memo.

But Murray nevertheless sued not only the Seauseas, but also a local newspaper, the Chagrin Valley Times, for their coverage of it.

Now, both the C.O.C.I.A.'s and the newspaper beat Murray's claims for defamation, but he tied them both up in appeals for years.

And the newspaper's defense cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In fact, the appellate court judge even explicitly wrote in his decision that Murray's suit shows why Ohio should adopt an anti-slap statute, pointing out that the paper had completely removed all their coverage of Murray from their site, which the judge said was an example of the chilling effects a suit like this has.

They don't have to work to be considered very, very successful.

-♪ ♪ -♪ Laughter ♪ And by cultivating a reputation for being aggressively litigious, Murray may have actually got what he wanted and successfully applied a chokehold on how he is covered.

And while it is hard to show you an unreported story, in researching this piece, we did actually stumble on 2 ongoing lawsuits involving Murray that have got almost no press, which is honestly strange, because once you hear the details, I think you'll agree that they probably should have.

Now, in 1, Murray discloses that 2 women who had worked for him had alleged harassment and the perpetration of a hostile work environment by Mr.

Murray, and while he denies those claims, he also admits paying those women considerable sums of money in confidential settlements.

In a separate ongoing lawsuit, a different former employee alleges there were numerous attempts by Murray to kiss her on the lips, pulling her into him to quote, cop a feel, and calling her into his office on 1 occasion to give him hot water with lemon while he was wearing nothing but his underwear.

And what possible thought process could have led to that?

I'd really like to solve both problems in a way that makes a female employee feel subhuman.

Bob, you've done it again, you clever little coal goblin.

The same complaint also claims that Murray had the plaintiff, on more than 1 occasion, get on her hands and knees to locate or pick up items for him, including 1 time when she was required to find a small, hard object he had dropped, and he only told her after she found it that it was a kidney stone he'd fished out of the toilet after passing it.

I know that that is absolutely nauseating, but remember, you chose this.

Everyone in this audience could have gone to see Stomp tonight instead.

-♪ STOMP THEME MUSIC ♪ -♪ STOMP THEME MUSIC ♪ Tickets are now available from $50.

That's a great deal for a classic New York show.

And sure, it's not gonna blow your mind, it's stomp.

But, but it's been around for nearly 30 years for good reason, and that reason is, at no point did they force their audience to imagine this man fishing out his own kidney stone from a toilet.

Now, I have to tell you, Murray denies all of those allegations, which he says are concocted, and claims that the woman is using the litigation as a vehicle to harass and publicly embarrass him in an attempt to strong-arm him into a settlement.

Although, I will also tell you that 1 of her colleagues backed her up in a separate deposition, saying she told her the kidney stone story at the time, and it described Murray as screaming at her to, find it, find it.

Was Murray honestly worried that someone else was gonna find his pea pebble first?

And It's genuinely hard to find the right response to all of that once you've heard it.

Although, I do think a seven-foot squirrel quoting a justifiably angry minor may have actually said it best.

The point is, it's a little weird that these lawsuits didn't get wider coverage.

These are serious allegations of workplace misconduct involving the chairman of the country's largest private coal company, a highly public figure who constantly brags about his closeness to the president and his role in shaping energy and environmental policy.

And I would argue that 1 reason might be that organizations are justifiably wary of getting sued by Murray.

Because even if they are baseless, his lawsuits can do major damage.

Ours wound up costing over $200,000 in legal fees.

And even though our insurance covered part of it, and we were lucky that HBO stood by us, this lawsuit was infuriating, took up a lot of time and resources, and resulted in a tripling of our LIBOR insurance premiums.

Despite the fact that, to reiterate, we fucking won this case!

We badly need effective anti-slap laws nationwide to deter powerful people like Bob Murray from using the courts to shut down people's legitimate dissent.

And I know that after tonight, Murray will probably sue us again.

Even though everything I've said has been rigorously vetted by our lawyers, who may I add, are getting very tired with us.

Because when we reached out to Murray last week to review the details that we plan to include in this piece, he wrote a letter back, not addressed directly to us, but to our bosses at AT&T and HBO, saying we were falsely vilifying him, launching scurrilous attacks, and arguing that none of his lawsuits are slapsuits, which they absolutely are.

It is yet another Bob Murray attempt to bully people into silence.

I will stand behind our first piece, and I'll stand behind this 1.

And as for the jokes that we made about him, we are more than covered there.

The judge in our case pointed out that the Supreme Court has consistently protected loose, figurative language that cannot reasonably be understood to convey facts about someone.

And I've got to say, it would be really tempting to say a bunch of loose, figurative things about Bob Murray right now, and not just on our behalf, but on behalf of every small newspaper and individual that he sued, and on behalf of every employee who's felt ill-treated by his company, and who may have wanted to tell him to say, eat shit, but couldn't.

And here is where I actually have some bad news and some good news for you.

The bad news is, the last 2 years have honestly just been too exhausting, so I'm afraid I am not going to say anything more about Bob Murray tonight.

The good news is, Why would I, when I can simply sing it instead?

-♪♪ -♪ We went to court against the world's worst sport ♪ ♪ And learned important lessons on the way ♪ ♪ We spoke with perfect candor and got accused of slander because Bob Murray wants to make us pay.

So even though he'll threaten legal Armageddon, we have just 1 tiny thing to say.

Bob Murray can go fuck himself today Ladies and gentlemen, to help me better respond to Bob Murray's complete bullshit please welcome to the show the Suck My Balls Pop dancers Murray, Murray, Murray,

Murray Hey Bob, watch this He went to the Louvre and spit in Mona Lisa's face.

Filled a rocket with puppies and he shot it into space.

He bludgeoned Nancy Kerrigan and watched her cry for fun He murdered Ashok Ferdinand and started World War I That's right, if we discuss Bob Murray in a way no reasonable person could strew as factual We can say whatever the fuck we like So come on everyone, let's head to the streets!

He'll stroll into a stranger's home and chis right in their wheatie He watches still magnolias and roots for diabetes He wrote the Macarena And he dots his eyes with hearts

And even worse, he likes to play Malala for his farts Hey!

We using protected speech to tell Bob Murray to eat shit

Is that the guy who dipped his balls in my hot dog water?

You'll be fine if I leave it here, right?

Burry, bury, he doesn't like Tom Hanks He caught up and goes here Told Hitler to quit painting and to find a new career He masturbates to Schindler's List Paul Geller makes him part He was Cosby's drug supplier, Jeffrey Epstein's prison guard.

John, as HBO's legal counsel, please stop.

1 day at the M&M's store, Bob Murray walked through the door.

He wasn't wearing pants that day, his dick and balls on full display.

He grabbed M&M's from a bowl and crammed them up his anal hole.

He said, my rectum's full of treats Reach in there and grab some sweets Grab some sweets!

These are all real things Bob Murray did See you in court, fuckface!

Bob, Bob Murray is a furry Putting aside our personal quarrels The Man Fox Swirls The Man Fox Swirls He's a furry Hey, I know where we should go!

Hey, Farmington, this is bad news to me Yeah, it doesn't count as slander Cos it's way too near We made up these anecdotes, they're silly and insane We could go on and on and on And on And on and on and on And on and on and on and on But we will stop this talking, though, So you better find your peace So eat shit!

See all LastWeekTonight transcripts on Youtube

SLAPP Suits: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)