In the current Congress, the number of House Republicans willing to break party ranks on key issues has been vanishingly small, but Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania tends to be one of them, and there’s no great mystery as to why.

The GOP congressman represents a district that supported Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Gov. Josh Shapiro, among other Democrats. He’s also one of only three House Republicans running for re-election in a district Kamala Harris won. With this in mind, Fitzpatrick understands that it’s in his electoral interest to maintain at least some distance from his party’s far-right agenda.

But away from Capitol Hill, Fitzpatrick’s tactics are anything but “moderate.”

Hoping to undermine Democrat Bob Harvie, a member of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, Fitzpatrick’s political operation has run attack ads telling local voters that his rival is “under FBI investigation.”

The trouble is that there’s nothing to suggest Harvie is, or ever was, facing any FBI scrutiny. He testified before a grand jury as a witness five years ago — in a case that never led to charges against anyone — and according to the Democrat’s lawyers, he is not now and has never been the subject of any criminal investigation.

Given the enormous difference between testifying in a case and being the defendant in a case, Harvie’s lawyers sent Fitzpatrick’s campaign a cease-and-desist letter last month, insisting that the ads are categorically false and defamatory. The Republican congressman and his team not only ignored the letter, but Fitzpatrick practically dared Harvie to file a lawsuit.

“They said they were going to file a lawsuit. And guess what? Guess what? They didn’t file a lawsuit,” Fitzpatrick said last month.

They’ve now filed a lawsuit. HuffPost reported:

Last week, Harvie actually sued. He filed a defamation case against Defending America PAC [a political action committee aligned with Fitzpatrick] and Chris Pack, a Republican consultant, accusing them of “repeatedly and recklessly publishing false and defamatory statements imputing criminal conduct that go beyond the bounds even of a highly contested political campaign.”

To date, Fitzpatrick, his campaign team, his consultant and the political action committee supporting his candidacy have not commented on the Democrat’s lawsuit. Watch this space.

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