Sarah K. Burris September 02, 2021 https://c.newsnow.com/A/1094182273?-33279:37565 President Donald Trump's eldest son and namesake suffered a legal loss Wednesday when a judge allowed a defamation lawsuit to move forward in West Virginia, noted Aaron Blake in a Washington Post analysis. Donald Trump Jr. stands accused of defaming 2018 candidate Don Blankenship when he claimed that the former coal CEO was a "felon." In fact, Blankenship was convicted of a misdemeanor. "Trump Jr.'s lawyers sought to have the case dismissed, but U.S. District Court Judge John Copenhaver rejected that Wednesday and said the case could move ahead," said the report. The decision was made, in large part, because Copenhaver believes that Don Jr. may have been aware that he was lying. "To plead actual malice, therefore, [a plaintiff] must plausibly allege that [the defendant] [published] the [material] with a 'high degree of awareness' that it was 'likely' false," the decision read. "Recklessness may be found where there are obvious reasons to doubt the veracity or accuracy of information.[P]laintiff alleges facts in support of the inference that Trump, Jr. issued the tweet with knowledge of its falsity: (1) Trump, Jr. was involved in high-level discussions about the primary campaign in West Virginia, (2) he made the statements shortly after one such meeting, (3) the comments were made as part of a string of false comments by sophisticated party operatives, (4) the true facts were widely available on the internet and had been widely reported, and (5) he never retracted or corrected the false tweets, despite being informed of their falsity." Blake drew attention to the part of the judge's comments saying that Trump Jr. "never retracted or corrected the false tweets, despite being informed of their falsity." Ironically, the judge noted that Trump Jr. promoted a CNN report saying that Blankenship was convicted only of a misdemeanor. "That sounds familiar," he said. In fact, the Trump family frequently refuses to admit they were wrong. Such was the case this week when Trump Jr. was told that the video of a person dangling from a helicopter in Afghanistan wasn't a person being "hanged by the Taliban." Trump Jr. doubled down, even going so far as to change his social media cover photos to remake President Joe Biden's logo with the person dangling from the helicopter........