Freeh Accuses Spanier of ‘Gratuitous Public Relations Spin’ in Defamation Lawsuit

The lawsuit between former Penn State president Graham Spanier and former FBI director Louis Freeh is slowly moving forward — but that doesn’t mean the end is in sight.

In new court documents filed Friday, attorneys for Freeh say they’re considering asking the court to throw out Spanier’s 139-page-long complaint and force him to write a new one, which would essentially send the lawsuit back to square one.

Freeh’s attorneys say Spanier’s complaint is unnecessarily long and convoluted, adding that they want the court to force Spanier to “file a new complaint…without the lengthy and gratuitous public relations spin.”

“In response to his criminal indictment, Spanier has engaged in a multifaceted campaign to publicize his versions of the events that occurred at PSU, including…the filing of this lawsuit almost a year after [the Freeh report] was released,” Freeh’s attorneys write.

Freeh’s latest attack against Spanier was filed on Friday in response to an order from Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas Senior Judge Robert Eby. Eby was appointed to hear Spanier’s defamation lawsuit earlier this month, and asked attorneys for both sides to file court documents outlining the complicated history of the lawsuit.

Spanier first filed notice of his intent to sue Freeh in 2013. Spanier claims Freeh defamed him and harmed his professional and personal reputation by making false claims about Spanier’s alleged involvement in a coverup of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Freeh and a team of investigators were hired by Penn State in 2011 to determine how Sandusky’s child sexual abuse had gone unnoticed by law enforcement and the general public. The Freeh report, released in 2012, concluded that Spanier and other university leaders failed to properly investigate reports of Sandusky’s sexual misconduct and repeatedly hid knowledge of the abuse from the public.

Spanier has attacked the report for being incomplete, biased, and poorly researched, and has adamantly denied allegations of his involvement in a coverup of the Sandusky scandal. He alleges that Freeh knowingly published false conclusions, and seeks monetary damages for the harm caused to his reputation.

Spanier also faces criminal charges of endangering the welfare of children and perjury in the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas in connection to his involvement in the alleged coverup. That case is currently on hold while Spanier appeals several pre-trial decisions, and no trial date has been set.

Two other former Penn State administrators — Tim Curley and Gary Schultz — also face charges of perjury and child endangerment alongside Spanier in Dauphin County court. They are not parties to Spanier’s lawsuit against Freeh.