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Askar Letter (4152)
Askar Letter (4152)
Our firm represents Mr. Casey Askar and his campaign committee, Casey Askar
for Congress. I am responding to your letter on behalf of Mr. Byron Donalds, dated
August 7, 2020, in which you complain that Casey Askar for Congress has made “false
and baseless statements” claiming Mr. Donalds supported or voted for President Barack
Obama. Unfortunately for Mr. Donalds, your letter does more to confirm the reality that
he supported President Barack Obama than to rebut it.
Since your letter fails to mention them, perhaps Mr. Donalds has not provided
you all the facts regarding his history as a Democrat. Here are some facts you should be
aware of:
1. The Supervisor of Elections for Collier County, Florida has confirmed in
writing that Mr. Donalds registered as a Democrat on April 21, 2003.1
1 See Exhibit A.
TODD B. ALLEN, ESQ.
AUGUST 10, 2020
PAGE 2 OF 4
2. Publicly available records obtained from Collier County, Florida confirm
that Mr. Donalds voted by mail in the 2004 general election,2 a race in
which John Kerry was the Democratic Party’s nominee for U.S. President.
5. The Supervisor of Elections for Collier County, Florida has confirmed in
writing that Mr. Donalds did not register as a Republican until March 11,
2010, 484 days after Barack Obama was elected President of the United
States.5
To support your allegation that our campaign “knew the allegations [that Mr.
Donalds supported President Barack Obama] were false” and “proceeded with the
allegation out of pure malice”, it appears you scoured Mr. Donalds’s Facebook page to
find the rare occasions in which Mr. Donalds criticized: (i) three Obama-‐‑era policies; (ii)
a single Obama political appointment; and (iii) campaign contributions that Obama
received from AIG. The struggle to find information that could conceivably rebut the
allegation that Mr. Donalds supported President Barack Obama is apparent.
What is more apparent, however, is what your letter does not say.
To be clear, if it was your intention to put my clients on notice that the statements
that Mr. Donalds supported President Barack Obama is false, then I would expect you
2 See Exhibit B.
3 Id.
4 See Exhibit B.
5 See Exhibit A.
TODD B. ALLEN, ESQ.
AUGUST 10, 2020
PAGE 3 OF 4
to make the unambiguous assertion that Mr. Donalds neither supported nor voted for
President Barack Obama. That assertion is glaringly absent from your letter, so your
notice is insufficient to support a potential legal claim.
What your letter does say is that “[t]here is nothing you could have discerned
from Mr. Donalds’ [sic] social media activity or his political activities that indicates that
he actually did vote for or support President Barack Obama.” My clients are stumped as
to why they are obligated to “discern” anything from a few Facebook posts since
government records confirm that Mr. Donalds: (i) registered as a Democrat on April 21,
2003; (ii) voted in the 2008 Democratic primary election and 2008 general election; and
(iii) did not register as a Republican until 484 days after Barack Obama was elected
President of the United States.
In summary, your letter does more to confirm the reality that Mr. Donalds
supported President Barack than to rebut it.
Given the elements of Florida law and the standard established by the United
States Supreme Court in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), a seminal
case cited in your letter, I urge you to review my clients’ advertisements and the facts
more closely. Such a review will confirm that none of the statements made in the
advertisements satisfy the elements for defamation, much less actual malice.
Of course, Mr. Donalds and his campaign are free to disseminate information as
they see fit to respond to the statements and advertisements from opposing campaigns.
It is an entirely different matter, however, to threaten a defamation action because my
clients are making the public aware of Mr. Donalds’s documented history as a
Democrat. In fact, it is laughable to suggest that Florida voters should not be allowed to
hear such information when a D.C.-‐‑based “super PAC” has spent more than $1 million
to convince voters that Mr. Donalds is a conservative.
In conclusion, I would be remiss if I did not explicitly state the obvious: The truth
is an absolute defense to a defamation claim. Thus, because your letter does more to
confirm the reality that Mr. Donalds supported President Barack Obama than to rebut
it, your client has no legal basis to demand that our campaign cease airing its
advertisements.
Sincerely,
TODD B. ALLEN, ESQ.
AUGUST 10, 2020
PAGE 4 OF 4
Chris K. Gober
Counsel, Casey Askar for Congress