USDA official victimized by selective use of video reaches settlement with blogger's widow

Shirley Sherrod

Shirley Sherrod, the former Georgia Rural Development director for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has reached a tentative settlement with the widow of conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, whom she sued after a heavily-edited video appeared to show her discriminating against a white farmer because of his race, leading to a racial firestorm and a request for her resignation.

When "the full video showed that Sherrod's words were an attempt at racial reconciliation, not racism," she was offered a new job at USDA, but refused the position, reports The Associated Press. In 2011 Sherrod sued Breitbart and his colleague Larry O'Connor "for defamation and emotional distress."

"U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon on Tuesday ordered the case halted 'in light of the parties' representations that a settlement has been reached among all of the parties' and the agreement circulated for signatures," AP reports. "Breitbart died in 2012. His wife Susannah was substituted as a defendant." (Read more)