The former chairwoman of Minnesota's Republican Party is locked in an ongoing legal battle with the family of her late congressman husband.
Jennifer Carnahan filed a counterclaim against family members of the late Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-MN) alleging defamation while she ran to fill her late husband's U.S. House seat, and another filing disputes the amount of money they contributed to his kidney cancer treatment after a judge ordered her to repay more than $20,000, reported the Pioneer Press.
“Hagedorn asked his family for financial support to cover the medical treatment,” the filing claims. “No promise of repayment whatsoever was made by Carnahan and Carnahan never even spoke to the Defendants about the financial gifts being given to Hagedorn.”
The filing also states that "Hagedorn's family actively opposed" the GOP congressman’s scandal-plagued widow locked in legal battles with husband’s family campaign and “took several actions to impugn her and Hagedorn’s marriage, defame her reputation and character.”
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“Less than a week before the primary election, they even publicized the fact that they had donated to one of her Republican primary opponents, whom Hagedorn explicitly said he did not want to carry his legacy forward,” the filing states.
Carnahan, who had resigned as state GOP chair over her ties to party donor and accused sex trafficker Anton Lazzaro and over complaints about presiding over a toxic work culture, finished third in last year's Republican primary.
The counterclaim alleges that Robert and Kathleen Kreklau, Hagedorn’s stepfather and mother, and Tricia Lucas, Hagedorn’s sister, intentionally took action a week before the special primary as part of "malicious attempt to ruin" her bid for Congress, which many House Republicans also opposed.
