Alva Review-Courier -

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas City Star asked a Kansas judge Friday to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against the newspaper by state Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, calling it a "meritless hand grenade" lobbed for political purposes.

Denning in turn called the allegations made in the newspaper's filing in Johnson County District Court "absurd."

Denning's lawsuit alleges that the newspaper and freelance columnist Steve Rose defamed him by falsely attributing multiple statements to him in a column last month about expansion of the state's Medicaid health coverage for the needy. The column criticized Denning, an Overland Park Republican, for opposing Medicaid expansion.

In its court filing, The Star said Rose told an editor that Denning made the statements to him last year, without disclosing the timing before the column was published. Denning said in his lawsuit that he and Rose had not spoken since August 2016.

The filing Friday was The Star's first legal response. It noted that Denning's attorney, Michael Kuckelman, is seeking to become the Kansas Republican Party's next chairman in a vote of GOP activists this weekend. The Star contends that Denning and Kuckelman wanted to "beat the drum of 'Fake News'" to bolster Kuckelman's candidacy.

"Sen. Denning and his grandstanding attorney have abused the judicial system for their political goals in filling a lawsuit bereft of any facts," wrote Bernard Rhodes, The Star's attorney.

The newspaper also asked District Judge Paul Gurney to order Denning and Kuckelman to pay its legal costs.

The Star contends it handled Rose's column reasonably, requiring him to name the source of statements that initially were unattributed. After Denning's staff questioned the column, an editor acknowledged in writing that it had not met the paper's standards.

Rose resigned as a columnist but said in response to the lawsuit, "I don't make things up."

Kuckelman said The Star is responsible for the material it publishes and "isn't off the hook" because it has distanced itself from Rose's column. Denning said the lawsuit isn't about "some sort of political revenge."

"It's about journalistic integrity and telling the truth," he said in a statement.

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