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California Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi settled with an Illinois man and paid him $7,500 after he accused the former House Speaker of violating federal robocalling laws.
“In October 2022, a Bolingbrook, Illinois resident named Jorge Rojas filed a 13-page lawsuit in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that accused the former speaker of the House and her campaign of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991,” Business Insider reported.
“That law, which has been found to apply to text messages in addition to calls, applies restrictions to robocalling and requires telemarketers not to contact individuals who’ve placed themselves on the Do Not Call Registry,” the outlet added.
“According to the suit, Rojas received 21 texts from Pelosi’s campaign from November 2021 to July 2022 despite previously placing himself on the registry in 2008 to ‘obtain solitude from invasive and harassing telemarketing calls,'” Business Insider reported.
Rojas’s complaint began his complaint stating: “As the Supreme Court has explained, Americans passionately disagree about many things. But they are largely united in their disdain for robocalls.”
Rojas went on to argue in his lawsuit that he “experienced frustration, annoyance, irritation, and a sense that his privacy has been invaded” by the texts from Pelosi’s campaign. He added that the texts constituted “malicious, intentional, willful, reckless, wanton and negligent disregard” for his rights.
Rojas sought a minimum of $31,500 in damages from Pelosi’s campaign, including $1,500 for each text message that he received.
In February, a few months after he filed the lawsuit, Rojas moved to dismiss the suit against Pelosi.
“And according to federal campaign finance disclosures made public on Friday, the dismissal came after Rojas received a $7,500 payment marked ‘Settlement’ from Pelosi’s congressional campaign,” Insider reported.
Pelosi came under fire last month when she offered condescending “advice” on how to “urge voters” to vote on the “impact to life” instead of religious affiliation.
REID: “You always said — one of my favorite things that you say is you have to learn how to take a punch and you have to learn how to throw a punch for the children.”
Pelosi: “That’s right. In the arena.”
REID: “In the arena. Give some advice to those who are frustrated by our politics now, about how you can start to get people to vote not on how politics will impact your religion, but how it will impact your life. You’re a religious person.”
Pelosi: “That’s right. It reminds me — we were talking, I was at Georgetown speaking the other day, and we talked about this. And I didn’t say it then, but I say it now because of the way you framed your question. When President Kennedy was running for president, he went to Houston, he spoke to all these ministers there. And the question is, what religion do you believe in? Of course, as a Catholic, that was not going to be popular here. He said, ‘It’s not important what religion I believe in. What’s important is what America I believe in.’ And that’s what we have to be thinking in terms of, taking it to people. And I have hope for this reason: I do think that many of the people who fell for what’s-his-name’s line, because they just didn’t see a path in the future, in the economy the way it was. I think many of them are really patriotic. I think some of them are racist and bigots, but I think many of them are very patriotic. I think young people have lost patience with all this, whether we talk about gun violence or we talk about the role of money in politics. If you take that money out, think of what it would mean. The fossil fuel industry could not dominate, the gun industry could not dominate, the pharmaceutical industry could not dominate, and people could see a connection between their kitchen table needs and what is happening in Washington, in politics. And we’re very proud of the record we had in the past two years, record-breaking under President Biden, he’s just a remarkable president, a great leader, visionary, strategic, knowledgeable, heart-to-heart, empathetic president. And again, I couldn’t say more about my members. They were so, so courageous to vote the way they did. But we still have to remember that the people are the boss and they have to know, and we have to tell over and over again and listen all the time. All the time.”
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