“Nomadic canon lawyer” Balestrieri fined $50k for defamation

By Damien Fisher

Self-described nomadic canon lawyer, Marc Balestrieri, is going to have to pay $50,000 for defaming a New Hampshire priest, the Rev. Georges de Laire.

Balestrieri was the final defendant in de Laire’s epic lawsuit against Gary “Michael” Voris and his Church Militant news outlet. According to court records, Balestrieri is the author of a 2019 defamatory article which caused de Laire emotional distress as well as the loss of his position as judicial vicar in the Diocese of Manchester.

Church Militant and its parent organization, St. Michael’s Media, shut down as a result of a settlement agreement with de Laire reached last year. The Michigan-based nonprofits that Voris founded 20 years ago to spread his weird version of Catholicism also paid de Laire $500,000 as part of the deal to avoid a worse fate at the coming jury trial.

Voris managed to stay out of a trial by apologizing in writing to de Laire last summer. Suzanne Elovecky, de Laire’s attorney, told us Voris also paid a “substantial” amount of money as part of the settlement. Voris later denied he paid any money to de Laire, and blamed a former staffer for the defamation. 

While de Laire wanted Balestrieri to pay $100,000, United States District Court Judge Joseph LaPlante wrote in his Aug. 25 order that $50,000 was appropriate given the undisclosed settlement cash he’s already received from St. Michael’s and Voris. 

Balestrieri and de Laire knew each other professionally, and Balestrieri represented people involved in a New Hampshire annulment case that de Laire presided over. When that case did not go his way, Balestrieri complained to Rome about de Laire, according to court records. The Vatican does not seem to have responded to Balestrieri’s complaints.

Balestrieri also represented Voris, various Church Militant staffers, and the Richmond, New Hampshire Feeneyite group, the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But it was Balestrieri’s side gig as an anonymous reporter for Church Militant that caused the problems for Voris, the Slaves, and de Laire.

Voris went to New Hampshire in 2019 to interview the Slaves after the Diocese of Manchester disciplined the group. As the judicial vicar, de Laire was the diocesan point man on dealing with the Slaves. Church Militant then outlet published videos and articles calling de Laire ‘emotionally unstable,’ stating de Laire is incompetent, and implying he’s corrupt, according to the lawsuit. 

Voris initially took credit for the reporting when de Laire brought the lawsuit, and kept Balestrieri true authorship secret. At the time the original article came out, Balestrieri was involved in the Slave’s canon law defense. Both Voris and Louis Villarubbia, the Slaves leader also known as Brother Andre Marie, claimed they had no knowledge of Balestrieri’s conflict of interest. 

Voris placed a large chunk of the blame for the articles on his failure to properly vet Balestrieri’s work. 

“As CEO of St. Michael’s Media and Church Militant.com, I did not ensure the proper vetting the article as I should have. Mr. Balestrieri did not substantiate, and has not substantiated in the lawsuit, his claims regarding Father de Laire by identifying sources. Prior to publication, SMM should have questioned this lack of substantiation, and should have assessed Mr. Balistieiri’s and his story’s objectivity. I did not ensure that SMM did so,” Voris wrote. 

Court records show Voris worked to keep Balestrieri’s identity secret for months after the lawsuit was filed. After Balestrieri’s connection came to light, Voris supplied him with an interest-free $65,000 loan as Balestrieri dodged process servers. Balestrieri was finally ruled in default and liable for the defamation for failing to respond to the lawsuit. 

As the case moved closer to a fall, 2023 trial, court records show de Laire’s team learned Voris and his Church Militant staff had been hiding evidence sought in discovery, including messages with Balestrieri. Balestrieri then made a surprise appearance at a June, 2023 hearing in the United States District Court in Concord seeking to get out from under the default judgement. 

Weeks before, Balestrieri denied to Villarubbia that he had written the original article. At the June hearing, Balestreiri agreed to sit for a deposition scheduled for July, 2023 during which he was likely to repeat that denial under oath. However, court records show the day of the June hearing, Voris sent Balestreiri a text message warning.

“Marc – you are committing perjury. You know you wrote that article. What you don’t know is this morning we found proof – your digital fingerprints – all totally documented – on that article. Remember the email address – TomMoore@Churchmilitant.com.? We have all the receipts. You go through with this and we will rain down on you publicly. You are a liar, and a Welch,” Voris wrote.

Balestrieri cancelled his deposition 24 hours before it was to start, and again disappeared from the scene for a time. 

From this point on, Church Militant and Voris were headed for disaster. Three defense lawyers quit the case, more evidence that been withheld was found, Voris was fired for violating Church Militant’s “morality clause” via a gay sex scandal, and Church Militant ran out of money. In February, the outlet agreed to settle with de Laire for half a million dollars before it went dark in April.

Balestrieri made repeated, unsuccessful attempts to get the default judgement lifted. But after two damages hearings this summer, at which Balestrieri was surprisingly present, LaPlante issued the $50,000 order this week. 

Voris has since resurfaced with a MAGA-flavored Catholic news blog called Souls and Liberty based in Houston, Texas. Voris has recycled some of his Church Militant video content on Souls and Liberty, like the talks he gave at the 2016 Church Militant Retreat at Sea.