The Gingrich camp threatened to sue television stations in South Carolina if they run the Romney PAC ads that claim Newt was “fined” $300,000 for an ethics violation.
NBC Politics reported, via Lucianne:
The war between the Gingrich and Romney camps is escalating over the former speaker’s threats to sue TV stations that continue to air attack ads by a Romney super PAC claiming that he was “fined” $300,000 for ethics violations.
In a letter sent to TV stations in Florida and South Carolina, Stefan Passantino, national counsel to the Gingrich presidential campaign, wrote that the ads asserting that Gingrich was “fined” for violating House ethics rules are “NOT TRUE” and represent “a defamatory communication which exposes this station to potential civil liability.
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“In turn, we do hereby DEMAND that your station immediately REFUSE, and if started, CEASE airing any such advertisements,” continues the letter, which is dated Jan. 6. Passantino added in an email Wednesday to NBC News: “With this letter, Newt Gingrich has put Mitt Romney’s SuperPAC on notice that the free ride they have enjoyed to misstate Newt’s record are over. Discussing true facts concerning one’s record are fine, using SuperPAC funds to mislead voters will no longer be tolerated.”
In fact, Passantino asserts, the $300,000 that Gingrich paid in 1997 after a House Ethics Committee investigation was to “reimburse” the House for “some costs” of the probe – and did not constitute a fine.
