Attorney ordered to pay $4.5 million for attacks on gay student

A former assistant attorney general who refused to apologize to a gay student leader at the University of Michigan whom he defamed and harassed online and on campus must now pay him $4.5 million, a jury decided.

The "Chris Armstrong Watch" blog, created by former Michigan Assistant Attorney General Andrew Shirvell, 32, accused openly gay University of Michigan ex-student body president Christopher Armstrong of enticing minors with alcohol and recruiting people to become homosexual.

The U.S. District Court jury Thursday awarded a $4.5 million civil settlement to Armstrong, 22, who said he suffered distress as a result of Shirvell's actions.

"I'm just incredibly humbled by what happened today," Armstrong said Thursday. "This is truly a victory, not just for myself, but for a lot of other kids out there."

Michigan alum Shirvell blogged that Armstrong, who graduated in 2011, was "a radical homosexual activist, racist, elitist and liar."

Deborah Gordon, the attorney representing Armstrong, said Shirvell also blogged that Armstrong participated in a number of sordid activities, including engaging in sex acts on a children's playground, inside a church and that he hosted orgies.

Shirvell would find out via Facebook about events Armstrong planned to attend in Ann Arbor, Mich., turn up and try to blend in with the crowd, Gordon said. He showed up at Armstrong's house several times and at one point called the police to report a party Armstrong was attending; he then blogged that "Ann Arbor police raided out of control gay party," she said.

Gordon told ABC News that she did not present the jury with anything on the blog that could be considered opinion, but showed the court that what Shirvell said was provable as false. She said Shirvell did not call a single witness during the trial, but "wrapped himself in the First Amendment."

Shirvell contested in court that all his statements were either true, or protected because of Armstrong's role as a public figure. He said that he plans to appeal, according to The Associated Press.

"This should have been thrown out," he said Thursday. "Juries give short shrift to First Amendment rights."

Gordon said Shirvell was told that the lawsuit would have been dropped if he had retracted his statements. She said that because the jury that heard the case is unable to make Shirvell issue an apology, the $4.5 million in damages would take its place.

"When we filed the case, we sent him a letter asking for retractions," Gordon said. "We sent a letter before the case was heard. The record needed to be set straight."

Shirvell, who was fired by former Attorney General Mike Cox after criticism of Armstrong in 2010, said he is unemployed, and that he has no means to pay such a sizable settlement, The AP reported.

"There's no way I could possibly ever pay such a judgment," he said after the ruling.

Shirvell, who represented himself, did not return calls from ABC News today.

Gordon said Armstrong has a job that resulted from an internship he had last year. She says she will continue to represent him, but that the possibility of allowing a retraction to settle the situation has passed.

"The jury has spoken. He had his chance to take responsibility and make this right, and give Chris his reputation back," she said.

"The jury did it. I don't need any retractions, nor am I asking. Absolutely not. He can just live with that."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Romney slams Obama’s attacks, won't release tax returns

(Evan Vucci/AP)Mitt Romney accused President Barack Obama of running a campaign based on "falsehood and dishonesty" and brushed aside suggestions—including from some Republicans—that he should release more years of tax returns.

In a Monday interview with "Fox & Friends," the presumptive Republican nominee rejected a claim from Chicago Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel who accused him over the weekend of  "whining" about attacks on his record at Bain Capital.

"I think when people accuse you of a crime you have a reason to go after them pretty hard, and I'm going to continue going after him," Romney said, arguing that Obama's attacks are "misdirected" and "dishonest." "What does it say about a president whose record is poor that all he can do in his campaign is attack me?"

Romney slammed Obama for running a "campaign based on falsehood and dishonesty," insisting it won't have "long legs" this fall. Asked if he should have been more aggressive in pushing back against Democratic attacks on his record at Bain, the ex-governor argued that the "best offense is to look at the president's record."

"Wouldn't it be interesting, Mr. President, if you spent some time looking at your record," Romney said.

Obama's attacks "may work in Chicago," Romney added, "but it won't work across America."

Romney ignored suggestions, including from a growing number of conservatives, that he should release more than two years of his tax returns, arguing it would only give more ammunition to the Obama campaign.

"John McCain ran for president and released two years of tax returns. John Kerry ran for president and his wife, who has hundreds of millions of dollars, she never released her tax returns. Somehow this wasn't an issue," Romney told Fox News. "The Obama people keep on wanting more and more and more, more things to pick through, more things for their opposition research to try and make a mountain out of and distort and to be dishonest about."

Romney insisted Americans care more about the economy and jobs than "attacks."

"The issue people care about is who can get the economy going again to help people have a brighter future," the presumptive GOP nominee said.

Romney's interview came as his campaign signaled a stronger pushback against the Obama campaign this week. On Monday, the campaign launched an attack on what it called Obama's "political payoff," accusing the president of working on behalf of campaign donors instead of the middle class.

In a statement to reporters, the Romney campaign accused Obama of "rewarding wealthy donors and administration insiders with taxpayer dollars." Among the examples they cited were federal loans to the failed energy company Solyndra, an example Romney has emphasized on the trail for months, and the Westly Group, a venture capital firm headed up by a major Obama donor whose portfolio of companies reportedly received tens of millions in economic stimulus money.

"Do you want to have an economy where political appointees in Washington, D.C. are making decisions about where investments go and where… taxpayer dollars is spent based on people's connections and how much money they raised in the last campaign cycle?" Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to Romney said on a conference call with reporters. "Or do you want an economy that is driven by private sector investment decisions in allowing people to spend more of their hard earned money and make decisions for themselves?"

After days of blistering attacks from Democrats, Romney aides also aimed to counter perception that Obama's offensive is hurting Romney with voters. The campaign circulated a memo from Romney pollster Neil Newhouse that argued the race is closer than ever in spite of the Obama campaign outspending the Romney camp by millions of dollars in advertising. (The memo did not acknowledge the millions conservative groups supporting Romney's campaign have spent on the Republican candidate's behalf.)

"President Obama's campaign will never have a more substantial advertising advantage than it has had over the past few weeks, yet there is no evidence to suggest that the ballot has moved," Newhouse wrote. " If throwing the kitchen sink at Gov. Romney while leveraging a two-to-one ad-spending advantage doesn't move numbers for the president, that's got to tell you something about the state of the electorate."

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