Crossword Genius

Politicians have the Spanish to defame (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

libel

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'to defame' is the definition.
(I know that libel is a more specific form of the action asperse)

'politicians have the spanish' is the wordplay.
'politicians have' becomes 'lib' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'the spanish' becomes 'el' ('the' in Spanish).
'lib'+'el'='LIBEL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for libel that I've seen before include "Offence" , "Actionable words" , "Published false statement that damages reputation" , "Damaging publication" , "false report" .)

I've seen this clue in The Mirror.
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