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Omaha Steve

(99,506 posts)
Thu Apr 16, 2020, 06:27 PM Apr 2020

Democratic super PAC: We will fight Trump in court over ads

Source: AP

By BILL BARROW and BRIAN SLODYSKO

WASHINGTON (AP) — A leading Democratic super PAC has promised it will tangle in court with President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign to keep airing television ads the Republican president is trying to keep off the airwaves.

Priorities USA Action chief Guy Cecil said Thursday that his group will intervene as a defendant in a lawsuit that Trump’s campaign filed in Wisconsin state court to block a local NBC affiliate from airing one of the super PAC’s ads that blasts the president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The Trump campaign is trying to railroad a TV station into censorship of ads critical of the president, and we will not let that stand,” Cecil said. “We stand by the facts in the ad and will defend it in court if necessary.”

The lawsuit, filed against WJFW-TV, an NBC affiliate in northern Wisconsin, sets up a notable battle between Trump’s financially flush reelection campaign and one of the biggest spending groups in Democratic politics. Priorities USA has spent much of Trump’s term researching voters’ views in key battleground states, including Wisconsin, that delivered Trump his Electoral College victory in 2016, and the PAC has committed to an extended television and digital advertising campaign to potential swing voters in those states.



President Donald Trump, followed by Vice President Mike Pence, walks on the Colonnade to speak about the coronavirus in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, April 15, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)


Read more: https://apnews.com/7843b9119b5194d5ec3c17a305a9c75f

14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Democratic super PAC: We will fight Trump in court over ads (Original Post) Omaha Steve Apr 2020 OP
Gotta be all in on this one /nt bucolic_frolic Apr 2020 #1
Counter-sue. . . . nt Bernardo de La Paz Apr 2020 #2
Good for them! The Velveteen Ocelot Apr 2020 #3
Me too! SheltieLover Apr 2020 #7
Help support them here: lastlib Apr 2020 #4
Done! ananda Apr 2020 #10
Thank you! lastlib Apr 2020 #12
I have a check with tRump's name on it ready to be endorsed over to Priorities USA ffr Apr 2020 #5
Real lawyers lining up howardmappel Apr 2020 #6
Ah, the discovery process is such a delight! abqtommy Apr 2020 #8
The fail here is Trump is suing the TV station, not the creator of the ad. Trump will lose. TeamPooka Apr 2020 #9
Trump's lawyer's may not be trying to win Massacure Apr 2020 #11
TV stations are like cops, attack one and they circle the wagons. TeamPooka Apr 2020 #14
Glad to see them taking this on. ibegurpard Apr 2020 #13

The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,615 posts)
3. Good for them!
Thu Apr 16, 2020, 06:33 PM
Apr 2020

Trump is deliberately picking on a small local station that he knows wouldn't have enough resources of its own to fight back. I'm glad to see an organization with deep pockets step in to help.

lastlib

(23,168 posts)
12. Thank you!
Thu Apr 16, 2020, 10:34 PM
Apr 2020

That's doing stimulus the right way!!

I was spending mine with Biden and a few other strategic groups, but may send a little this way (though I'm not totally crazy about Actblue--they take too much of a cut, I'd rather get it straight to the target.)

howardmappel

(80 posts)
6. Real lawyers lining up
Thu Apr 16, 2020, 06:37 PM
Apr 2020

And real lawyers and real lawfirms will be lining up along side Priorities. This will not be case of Trump being able to threaten a small tv station with his lawyers. And Trump is not going to like being forced to turn over documents in discovery. Similarly, Trump is arguing that he doesn't have to comply with discovery in the suit by Amazon re: the DOD contract, claiming a vastly and unprecedented expansion of executive privilege. But if he is going to claim that Amazon will say okay, then you, Trump, can't introduce ANY evidence that you didn't interfere. And there goes Trump's defense.

He and his monkees (his lawyers) are idiots. Note I am not suggesting that all lawyers are monkees, just his. Full disclosure, I am a lawyer.

TeamPooka

(24,210 posts)
9. The fail here is Trump is suing the TV station, not the creator of the ad. Trump will lose.
Thu Apr 16, 2020, 07:06 PM
Apr 2020

He hires such bad lawyers and trying to intimidate TV stations is a bad move.

Massacure

(7,515 posts)
11. Trump's lawyer's may not be trying to win
Thu Apr 16, 2020, 10:32 PM
Apr 2020

It's a tactic known as SLAPP - Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation - and it's goal is to intimidate, coerce, or silence an entity that would have difficulty paying to mount a legal defense. Many states have what are called SLAPP-back laws designed to thwart these types of lawsuits and which allow the defendant to recover attorneys fees and collect damages if the plaintiff fails to meet a certain threshold of viability in their lawsuit.

A quick look at Wikipedia shows that Wisconsin doesn't have any statutes related to SLAPP protections.

ibegurpard

(16,685 posts)
13. Glad to see them taking this on.
Thu Apr 16, 2020, 10:35 PM
Apr 2020

The purpose of the lawsuit against a small station was to intimidate an organization without the resources to fight it.

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