Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s chief of staff, Bonnie Krenz-Schnurman, is suing Virginia political operative Ben Tribbett for defamation.
According to the lawsuit filed in Richmond Circuit Court on Monday, Krenz-Schnurman is suing Tribbett for spreading false rumors that the father of her child is an elected official in Virginia, not her husband.
“Defendant Ben Tribbett has told elected officials, consultants, and senior political leaders across Virginia that Plaintiff — chief of staff to Governor Spanberger — engaged in an extramarital affair with a sitting state delegate who supported a competing congressional redistricting proposal, became pregnant by him, and is passing that child off as her husband’s,” the filing states.
The filing states that the accusation is completely false.
“The paternity allegation Defendant is circulating is scientifically impossible and Plaintiff can provide DNA and genetic testing to remove any doubt regarding these facts,” the filing states. “Plaintiff has never had a romantic or sexual relationship with the delegate Defendant identifies.”
The lawsuit alleges that Tribbett is spreading the rumors after the maps he helped create were not used for redistricting.
“At the outset of Governor Abigail Spanberger’s term-following her decisive statewide election, Virginia Democrats were engaged in a consequential debate over congressional redistricting,” the filing states. “Multiple approaches were advanced within the party. Defendant supported one strategy. A different proposal allegedly supported by the state delegate Defendant now falsely claims is the father of Plaintiff’s child, ultimately advanced.”
Tribbett was involved in creating the map proposals for Senate Democrats, which were ultimately not selected by Democrats as the final proposal to put before Virginia voters in a referendum.
A person with knowledge of the information told Virginia Scope that Krenz-Schnurman asked Tribbett to apologize before filing the lawsuit. According to this source and the filing, Tribbett refused.
“After she learned of the accusation, Plaintiff demanded that Defendant retract his false claims. He flatly refused,” the filing states. “He has produced no evidence to support his lies. Because there is none. Instead, upon information and belief, he continues to repeat his invented story within Virginia’s political leadership and to continue to falsely malign Plaintiff’s integrity.”
The filing alleges that Tribbett created the rumor to protect his “professional standing and deflect from his own failures by shifting blame for a political loss onto Plaintiff.”
Tribbett declined to comment, telling Virginia Scope that he has not yet been served nor has he had time to discuss it with his attorney.
“This complaint speaks for itself,” said Daniel Watkins, the attorney for Krenz-Schnurman. “Falsely claiming a married woman cheated on her husband and conceived a child with another man isn’t politics — it’s defamation. The complaint alleges that Mr. Tribbett knowingly spread a malicious lie, and we are prepared to prove it in court.”
Krenz-Schnurman is seeking $17,750,000 in reputational damages and $350,000 in punitive damages.