ivanka trump – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner Threaten Defamation Suit Over Lincoln Project's Non-Defamatory Billboards

from the Trump,-Kushner:-give-this-entity-we-dislike-more-attention-please,-fellow-Americ dept

Donald Trump’s offspring are as thin-skinned as the President himself. And, like him, they apparently have access to the worst legal counsel money can buy. First Daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, apparently can’t handle being criticized for their involvement in the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Lincoln Project — formed by Republicans who’ve distanced themselves from Trump and the current Republican party — has been routinely and harshly critical of Trump and his presidency. Recently, the group purchased billboards in Time Square that feature Ivanka Trump gesturing towards COVID-19 death counts in the US and New York State, along with a quote from Jared Kushner — the head of Trump’s business-facing COVID-19 response task force — stating that anything New Yorkers suffer is their own problem.

Here’s a photo of the billboard as posted by the Lincoln Project’s Twitter account:

The hand gesture appears to be an approximation of the one used by Ivanka Trump when she tweeted a plug for Goya Beans earlier this year.

The Kushner quote comes from a Vanity Fair article published in September. It was attributed to him by an attendee of one of Kusher’s COVID task force meetings — ones in which he pushed the idea the “free market” would control the spread of the virus.

The same attendee explained that although he believed in open markets, he feared that the system was breaking. As evidence, he pointed to a CNN report about New York governor Andrew Cuomo and his desperate call for supplies.

“That’s the CNN bullshit,” Kushner snapped. “They lie.”

_According to another attendee, Kushner then began to rail against the governor: “Cuomo didn’t pound the phones hard enough to get PPE for his state…. His people are going to suffer and that’s their problem._”

There’s the factual background. Here’s the response from the couple’s lawyer, Marc Kasowitz, who seemingly has no idea how defamation law works.

We represent Mr. Jared Kushner and Ms. Ivanka Trump. I am writing concerning the false, malicious and defamatory ads that the Lincoln Project is displaying on billboards in Times Square. 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 the original), with body bags underneath.

Of course, Mr. Kushner never made any such statement, Ms. Trump never made any such gesture, and the Lincoln Project’s representations that they did are an outrageous and shameful libel. If these billboard ads are not immediately removed, we will sue you for what will doubtless be enormous compensatory and punitive damages.

LOL. First off, Ivanka did make “such gesture,” even if it was to cradle an innocuous can of beans rather than proudly present the COVID death toll. Second, whether or not it’s ever proven Kushner made this statement, the Lincoln Project reasonably relied on reporting indicating he did. There’s nothing false, malicious, or defamatory about the quote posted on the billboard.

Finally, I have no doubt that Kasowitz is capable of writing a complaint demanding “enormous damages.” But writing a complaint is not the same thing as winning a lawsuit. And it’s not even in the same area code, nevermind ballpark, of collecting any damages of any amount.

The Lincoln Project has responded appropriately to this idiotic attempt to silence it with legal threats.

The level of indignant outrage Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have shown towards the Lincoln Project for exposing their indifference for the more than 223,000 people who have lost their lives due to their reckless mismanagement of COVID-19 is comical. While we truly enjoy living rent free in their heads, their empty threats will not be taken more seriously than we take Ivanka and Jared.

[…]

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 billboards will stay up.

The Lincoln Project issued a longer “go fuck yourselves” via their legal representation a few hours later. It’s just as caustic as its first riposte.

You boldy predict that the result of your lawsuit “will doubtless be enormous compensatory and punitive damages.”

Please peddle your scare tactics elsewhere. The Lincoln Project will not be intimidated by such empty bluster.

[…]

Contrary to your claim that “Mr. Kushner never made any such statement,” Vanity Fair reported in a widely circulated article that Mr. Kushner did indeed say that New Yorkers “are going to suffer and that’s their problem” during the time that he was entrusted to lead our nation’s COVID-19 response. The Lincoln Project explicitly cited Vanity Fair as the source for Mr. Kushner’s featured statement. Please contact us again if at some point you somehow succeed in convincing Vanity Fair to retract its article, but I trust this supplemental explanation settles the matter for now as to Mr. Kushner’s remark.

[…]

The Lincoln Project would welcome the opportunity to further establish the truthfulness of its Time Square billboards through litigation and discovery, so sue if you must. In the meantime, may I suggest that if Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump are genuinely concerned about salvaging their reputations, they would do well to stop suppressing truthful criticism and instead turn their attention to the COVID-19 crisis that is still unfolding under their inept watch. These billboards are not causing Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump’s standing with the public to plummet. Their incompetence is.

I’d like to say I’d be very surprised if this legal threat actually becomes a lawsuit. But it’s been four extremely long years and it feels like nothing Trump or his offspring do is still capable of surprising me. If the power couple wants to pay Marc Kasowitz an enormous amount of money to waste everyone’s time, that’s up to them. But the Lincoln Project shouldn’t be forced to waste its own time and money just because Ivanka and Jared feel like wasting theirs. So, for that reason, I hope this is the last we hear from Jared and Ivanka about the Times Square billboards.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, billboards, defamation, free speech, ivanka trump, jared kushner, lincoln project, marc kasowitz, slapp, streisand effect

But Her Emails: Ivanka Trump Also Used A Private Email Account For Official Government Business

from the SAD! dept

As we near the midpoint of Trump’s presidential term, White House renovations continue, including the erection of a glass-walled enclosure for stone-throwing.

Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails last year to White House aides, Cabinet officials and her assistants using a personal account, many of them in violation of federal records rules, according to people familiar with a White House examination of her correspondence.

White House ethics officials learned of Trump’s repeated use of personal email when reviewing emails gathered last fall by five Cabinet agencies to respond to a public records lawsuit. That review revealed that throughout much of 2017, she often discussed or relayed official White House business using a private email account with a domain that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner.

According to White House counsel, this was all a misunderstanding. Apparently, Ivanka Trump wasn’t aware of the rules governing the discussion of official government business on private channels. This would only be excusable if her father hadn’tspent a great deal of time calling for Hillary Clinton to be locked up for the same behavior.

Given the (still!) ongoing excoriation of Clinton by Donald Trump, you’d think his administration would have tried to lead by example and make sure everyone was on official channels from day one. Instead, his admin team did the same thing Clinton did, minus the setup of a private server.

And there are a few differences between Ivanka Trump’s personal email use and Clinton’s. Some commenters will make this part of the post redundant as they seek to find something hypocritical in Techdirt’s coverage of this story or simply demand it be known Ivanka’s actions were far more acceptable than Clinton’s. Nevertheless, here we go:

It appears no classified information made its way into her personal email account. She also did not set up her own server to handle all official communications. She is also now apparently using her official White House email account after being informed of the rules — a corrective effort Hillary Clinton never made.

Since I’m sure this short post pointing out the hypocrisy of the Trump Administration will be viewed as biased, here’s Techdirt’s history on government officials and private email accounts:

Techdirt criticizes Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server

Techdirt criticizes James Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation

Techdirt criticizes Jame Comey’s reopening of the Clinton email investigation

Techdirt criticizes Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s use of a private email account

Techdirt criticizes New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s use of a private email account

Techdirt criticizes former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s use of a private email account

Techdirt criticizes VP Mike Pence’s use of a private email account

If a government official has used private email accounts for official business, Techdirt has criticized them. Ivanka Trump doesn’t get a pass and neither does anyone on the other side of the gaping political divide. She may not have known the specifics governing official communications but the Trump Administration has no one to blame but itself for the black eye it’s now sporting.

HER EMAILS was a major plank in Trump’s election platform. His administration team could have prevented this but was too busy keeping their own communications off the record to straighten out Ivanka Trump.

Filed Under: email, hillary clinton, ivanka trump

Members Of Trump's Admin Team Using Private Email Accounts Because Of Course They Are

from the winning-streak-continues dept

Making American Political Hypocrisy Great Again:

President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner has used a private email account to conduct and discuss official White House business dozens of times, his lawyer confirmed Sunday.

Kushner used the private account through his first nine months in government service, even as the president continued to criticize his opponent in the 2016 presidential election, Democrat Hillary Clinton, for her use of a private email account for government business.

And, because once is never enough:

Ivanka Trump used a personal email account to communicate with a member of President Trump’s administration, a watchdog group said Monday.

American Oversight obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that show Ivanka Trump, a senior White House adviser to her father, used a personal email account to contact Small Business Administration Administrator Linda McMahon in February.

It’s not as though anyone isn’t aware of their responsibility to use official government email accounts for official government business. There’s a duty to preserve records that goes hand-in-hand with FOIA law. Those who choose to do business this way are either lazy or devious. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be one or the other.

At this point, the criticisms that paved the way to Trump’s win can almost all be levied against the new administration. All we’re really waiting for is someone to show up with a birth certificate showing Donald Trump isn’t a natural-born US citizen.

Clinton’s excuse for her continuous use of a private email account was “convenience.” Guess what Kushner’s is:

Once in the White House, Kushner used his private account for convenience from time to time — especially when he was traveling or using a personal laptop, according to two people familiar with his practice.

As innocuous as the use appears to be — at least according to obtained documents and unidentified sources’ statements — the point is people in government positions know better than to continue using private email accounts for government business. There’s no excuse at this point — not with more than 25 years of mainstream email use and a half-century of federal public records law.

That officials continue to do this highlights a flaw in public records laws: the fact that they’re written by people with the most interest in keeping some communications secret. Private email accounts are used because there’s a good likelihood courts won’t force every email to be turned over in the event of a records request lawsuit. Even better, since the chance of an actual lawsuit being filed is low enough, many public figures feel these dice are safe to roll.

This isn’t solely a Trump Administration problem, but it’s definitely a case of double standards. We expect those from our politicians, sadly. But we don’t expect them on the level we’ve seen over the past several months, where political opponents are savaged by administration officials (including the president) for behavior Trump’s own team engages in.

Filed Under: convenience, email, foia, hillary clinton, ivanka trump, jared kushner, private email, transparency