On Jan. 7, the day after the riot, Andrews told Crain’s she went to Washington “to support my president, but I never saw anything destructive taking place.” Her description that day indicated she was on the opposite side of the building, the east side, from where the rioters broke in.
That is essentially the same description the lawsuit uses: “Unbeknownst to Libby, while she was present on the east side of the United States Capitol Building, a group of individuals apparently forcibly entered the United States Capitol Building without authority by breaching the doors on the west side of the building and then and there engaged in offensive and vile criminal acts within the United States Capitol Building.”
Andrews told Crain’s in January that she only learned of the Capitol breach later that night, when she was back at her hotel. In the lawsuit, her attorneys says she did not participate in any of the damage to the Capitol, threats to other people or unlawful entry into the Capitol.
While outside the Capitol, the lawsuit says, Andrews “engaged in right of association and free speech as guaranteed by the First Amendment.”
Later on the evening of Jan. 6, Andrews posted on social media a photo of a glass of champagne and the words, “After storming the capital a good glass of champagne is needed!”
Because MSNBC included her name and photo among those charged in connection to the riot, the lawsuit says, “Libby has suffered substantial and perpetual reputational, emotional and
financial harm in the northern district of Illinois.”
@properties fired Andrews, who had been part-time with the brokerage, the morning of Jan. 7 and issued a statement that day that said it had “received a tremendous amount of outreach over the past several hours making us aware of the actions of one of our agents, who acknowledged on social media that she ‘stormed the Capitol’ yesterday in Washington, D.C. @properties unequivocally condemns these actions, and the company has severed ties with this agent effective immediately.”
The same day, Andrews took a new job with another agency, Gold Coast Exclusive.
MSNBC’s broadcast a few days later that indicated Andrews was among the people charged, the suit says, is “now forever a part of the historical internet record and will haunt and taint Libby for the remainder of her natural life and forever impugn her reputation.”
The Chicago Sun-Times earlier reported Andrews’ lawsuit.