The AJC’s Aaron Sheinin, working on his birthday (happy birthday old man), brings us an update in the primary turned potential potential civil suit between Congressman/defendant Barry Loudermilk and challenger/plaintiff Daniel Cowan. Follow this link to the AJC for visual representation of the mailers and responses discussed below.
Long and short of this: Team Loudermilk has produced and distributed a mailer to 11th District voters (including yours truly) that highlights Cowan’s investment in a joint venture with Emirates Bank. The same bank funds infrastructure projects in Iran. Iran sponsors terrorism. Ergo,…grainy pictures of a candidate on the phone, next to a couple of pictures of….well, the images are designed to convey terrorism. See for yourself here.
This has caused Team Cowan to send a cease and desist letter from the firm of (Doug) Chalmers, (B.J.) Pak, Burch, and Adams with Tippi Burch acting as counsel. I’ll leave the lawyers here to say whether they think defamation occurred, given that the mailer states accurate facts and then pairs them with images that “may” suggest to a reader to draw a conclusion that links the items together.
Loudermilk campaign spokesperson responded to Sheinin their response to the request to cease and desist, with…well this:
My interpretation of their answer is this:
