The Club for Growth is threatening to countersue Donald Trump if he brings legal action against the conservative group over what the Republican presidential front-runner has complained is an unfair attack ad.
The Club for Growth recently went on the air in Iowa, host of the first nominating contest of the GOP 2016 primary, charging Trump with being a liberal tax raiser whose policies are not conservative. The New York billionaire real estate mogul and reality television star, who is ahead in most state and national GOP primary polls, responded with a letter to the Club for Growth threatening legal action if the free-market advocacy group didn’t pull the ad.
The letter was penned by Allen Garten, general counsel of The Trump Organization. On Friday, the Club for Growth responded with a warning of its own, telling Garten in a letter that it will “continue to exercise its fundamental First Amendment right to criticize Mr. Trump’s documented anti-growth, pro-tax policies.”
“If Mr. Trump brought suit on the baseless grounds stated in your letter, Club Action would not hesitate to seek sanctions for abusive litigation under Federal Rule 11 or equivalent rules and, depending on the forum, under statutes that deter Strategic Litigation against Public Participation (anti-SLAPP statutes,”) the club said in its letter.
