Thursday on Facebook, cartoonist Berkeley Breathed (of Bloom County fame) posted a letter purportedly from President Donald Trump’s New York attorney, Marc E. Kasowitz, taking Breathed to task for disseminating “flagrantly altered photos [of the president] wearing apparel featuring your artwork.” The letter bore the date-stamp May 23 and was accompanied by a brief note from Breathed, which read: “Arrived this morning. Full disclosure around here. ‐‐Mgmt.”
The text of the cease-and-desist letter allegedly from Kasowitz threatens Breathed with a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of New York if the “rights-protected visages” of Trump and his family were not immediately removed from all promotional and advertising mediums. The letter bears the ostensible signature of Kasowitz, and while the letter is headed with the logo that also appears on Kasowitz’s firm’s website, no other identifying information of the firms appears, such as an address, phone number, or email address that would normally be found on business stationery.
Further, one of the “altered photos” to which the letter refers is still featured on Berkeley Breathed’s Bloom County Facebook page where the letter was posted. That picture portrays Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on horseback wearing Bloom County T-shirts, which are sold in Breathed’s online store. (The original photo is itself an altered photo of a shirtless Putin on horseback—with a shirtless image of Trump added behind the Russian.)
A second photo appears on Breathed’s Instagram account from President Trump’s now infamous Oval Office meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak; however, in Breathed’s photo, Trump is sporting a “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted for Bill ‘N Opus” shirt. (Bill and Opus, characters from Breathed’s Bloom County comic strip, also appear on the shirt.)
But it turns out that the Kasowitz letter is not actually from Kasowitz, or his firm. Contacted by email shortly after the letter was posted, Emily Thall, director of business development and marketing for Kasowitz’s firm, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD, “In response to your earlier email, I can confirm that the letter is not legitimate—it is a fake.”
If the flat denial by Kasowitz’s office were not enough, the signature used in the fake letter bears no resemblance to Kasowitz’s actual signature, which can be seen in a letter Kasowitz sent to the New York Times on behalf of Trump in 2016.
Within hours of posting it, Breathed’s fake letter had tens of thousands of shares, reactions, and comments, and at least one website, Uproxx, had fallen for the hoax. Less than seven hours after posting the fake letter, Breathed then posted a satirical response to Kasowitz on Facebook saying that he was “really, very sincerely sorry” and that the offending images of Trump—meaning, the doctored photos of Trump with the Russians—had been removed. (They haven’t.)
As of this time, Breathed has not responded to a request for comment.
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