Lincoln Project Warns Jared And Ivanka: Lawsuit Threats Mean More Billboards

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

Legal experts are pushing back against President Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump and her husband, White House senior advisor Jared Kushner's latest threat to file a lawsuit against the Lincoln Project over the political action committee's billboards criticizing the White House's handling of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

In a letter released on Friday, Trump family attorney Marc Kasowitz released a statement condemning the former Republicans' billboards located in New York City's Times Square.

"We represent Mr. Jared Kushner and Ms. Ivanka Trump," Kasowitz wrote. "I am writing concerning the false, malicious and defamatory ads that the Lincoln Project is displaying on billboards in Times Square."

Kasowitz went on to describe the billboards and his interpretation of the ads saying: "Those ads show Ms. Trump smiling and gesturing toward a death count of Americans and New Yorkers, and attribute to Mr. Kushner the statement that '[New Yorkers] are going to suffer and that's their problem' (alteration in original), with body bags underneath."

However, multiple legal experts have taken to Twitter with their responses as they criticized the couple's stance. In fact, First Amendment attorney Ken White also described their actions as "absolutely frivolous."

"This is an abusively frivolous defamation claim," White tweeted. "In a normal era, shamefully stupid, but standard for Trumps and the amoral hucksters they hire as lawyers."

Robert Mueller's former top lieutenant Andrew Weissmann also chimed in via Twitter with words of criticism toward Kushner and Ivanka Trump. Weissmann tweeted, "The apple does not fall far from the Donald Trump tree."

Despite the couple's threat, the Lincoln Project released a response via Twitter as they dismissed the threatening letter. The group tweeted, "Jared and Ivanka have always been entitled, out-of-touch bullies who have never given the slightest indication they have any regard for the American people. We plan on showing them the same level of respect."

The anti-Trump group made it clear the billboards will remain in place. "The billboards will stay up," the group said in a tweeted statement. "We consider it important that in Times Square, the crossroads of the world, people are continuously reminded of the cruelty, audacity and staggering lack of empathy the Trumps and the Kushners have displayed towards the American people."