YouTube comedian Friendlyjordies sued for defamation by NSW deputy premier John Barilaro

The New South Wales deputy premier, John Barilaro, is suing the YouTube comedian Jordan Shanks for defamation.In a statement of claim lodged in the federal court on Thursday, lawyers for Barilaro say Shanks, a former male model who uses the nom de plume Friendlyjordies in his popular YouTube videos, defamed the deputy premier in a series of “vile and racist” videos that had brought him into “public disrepute, odium, ridicule and contempt”.Court documents reveal Barilaro is also suing tech company Google for its failure to remove two YouTube videos posted by Shanks.Barilaro is understood to have briefed the star silk Sue Chrysanthou SC for the case. It comes after the high-profile barrister, who has previously represented the actor Geoffrey Rush and the Greens MP Sarah Hanson-Young, was restrained from acting for the former federal attorney general Christian Porter in his unrelated defamation claim against the ABC this week.Shanks, who often appears beside state and federal Labor MPs, has been routinely critical of Barilaro in his videos. Court documents reveal Barilaro is suing over a series of videos posted in September and October last year.The first, which Shanks filmed inside an Albury property owned by Barilaro which he had rented on…
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