Judge rules Rachel Maddow, MSNBC hosts made ‘verifiably false’ statements about Georgia doctor in defamation case

In her ruling last month, Judge Lisa Godbey Wood from the Southern District in Georgia said that Maddow, Chris Hayes, and others made 39 "verifiably false" claims about Amin. The doctor was a gynecologist who treated detainees at a Georgia Immigration and Customs Enforcement center.

A nurse at the facility submitted a whistleblower complaint, saying that Amin was performing "mass hysterectomies" at the facility, alleging that they were medically unnecessary operations. According to court documents, Amin only performed two hysterectomies, and "medical records for both hysterectomy patients show ICE authorization."

"The two hysterectomy patients also signed informed consent forms for their procedures," the court documents add. "NBC published multiple reports about allegations that Plaintiff, Dr. Mahendra Amin, performed mass hysterectomies on female detainees at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement," the ruling stated. "NBC reported allegations that Dr. Amin performed hysterectomies that were unnecessary, unauthorized, or even botched. Dr. Amin then brought this case, asserting that NBC defamed him under Georgia law."

Amin had performed a number of medical services for patients in the ICE facility but had only ever done two hysterectomies there. The court documents show that NBC News veteran and deputy director of standards at NBCUniversal Chris Scholl had strong concerns over the reporting that showed that Amin had a clean record, and Dawn Wooten, the whistleblower in the case, had "no direct knowledge" of the operations and "kind of has a beef."

Despite the concerns, Maddow and other hosts went through several segments during their primetime programming on MSNBC. Maddow quoted a detainee from the ICE facility as saying, "When I met all these women who had had surgeries, I thought this was like an experimental concentration camp." Maddow then added, "The nurse says she and her fellow nurses, quote, questioned among ourselves like goodness he’s taking everybody’s stuff out that’s his specialty, he’s the uterus collector … He’s taking all their uteruses out or he’s taking their tubes out.”

Amin sued NBCUniversal for defamation in 2021 and a Senate probe into the allegations found no evidence the doctor had performed "mass hysterectomies." The Senate report stated, "The Subcommittee did not substantiate the allegations of mass hysterectomies on ICDC detainees. Records indicate that Dr. Amin performed two hysterectomies on ICDC detainees between 2017 and 2019. Both procedures were deemed medically necessary by ICE."

A trial date for the defamation case has not been set yet.