From the article:

In a deposition submitted by a lawyer for the news site, Tomczyk is quoted as saying, “I have a brother who is a gay guy, and I’ve certainly out of joking and out of spite called him a ‘f****t’ more than once.”

Zoom, enhance:

and out of spite

Out of spite? You've called someone a slur - the specific slur in question, in fact - out of spite, multiple times, and yet you're claiming this specific time you've been defamed? What's the defamation? Did they falsely imply that you were at a 10/10 on the homophobia scale at the meeting while in fact you were only at a 9/10 that day?

Because political capital protects its own.

I didn’t read the article, I don’t know where this took place, I don’t know anything about any of the people involved, but I do know this does not seem out of the ordinary at all and I am not surprised in the least.

Maybe he's appealing because he can't afford to pay the fees he forced the news site to incur if he loses (I think that can sometimes be part of a decision, but maybe I'm wrong).