NEW YORK, USA — With today’s deadline for an apology from him breathing down his neck, the Information Minister Robert Nesta Morgan took to the airwaves yesterday to head off a threatened defamation suit from an aggrieved Jamaican here.

Morgan’s accuser is former Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) special agent Jamaican American attorney Wilfred Rattigan who alleged that the Jamaican minister had suggested on an online programme
Mek Wi Talk, hosted by social media platform CHOPPSMEDIA, that he was dishonourably discharged from the FBI and had never served in Jamaica as claimed.

Morgan was given until today by Rattigan’s lawyer, Isat Buchanan, to withdraw his comments and apologise, failing which he would face his client in the Supreme Court of Jamaica.

Speaking on the same programme Wednesday, Morgan said:

“I have no aversion in withdrawing the comments made, as I wish to make it very clear, that there was no intention to defame Mr Rattigan. I apologise to him and his family and sincerely withdraw any comment Mr Rattigan deemed or thought was defamatory.”

He said his attorney had written to Rattigan’s attorney conveying his sentiments, his withdrawal of the comments and his apology.

It was not the first time that Rattigan has had a run in with a minister of the current Jamaica Labour Party Administration. A practising attorney and an outspoken member of the Diaspora, he has been a regular critic of the Government over its handling of several issues, specifically crime, violence and corruption.

Last year he brought an unsuccessful suit in the Supreme Court to get the Administration to disclose the source of the donations for the failed bid by Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Minister Kamina Johnson Smith to be elected Commonwealth secretary general. He has since appealed the ruling.

Rattigan is also said to be disgruntled over the Government’s lukewarm response to his offers to help fight crime with expertise he developed at the FBI.

Despite Morgan being forced to eat crow, Rattigan indicated he intended to pursue his defamation claim.

“This is not, and I want to reiterate, is not about monetary gain. In fact, I want to assure all concerned that any money that may come from my action will be used to assist a student or students from a depressed community in Jamaica, “ he said.

In a February 8 letter setting the February 15 deadline for the apology, Buchanan wrote: “The instructions of Mr Rattigan are that on the named day you did in your capacity as minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for information make statements tantamount to defamation.

“The statements were not only reckless, considering the office you serve, but such statements acted in such a way to cause harm to the public profile of Mr Rattigan.”

Yesterday, Morgan said that he had no intention of engaging in any court action with anyone.