Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump May Sue Lincoln Project Over ‘Defamatory’ Billboards

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are threatening to sue an anti-Trump committee for putting up two “false” and “defamatory” billboards in New York City.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump May Sue Lincoln Project Over ‘Defamatory’ Billboards
Then-White House senior advisors Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner arrive at Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Feb. 25, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Lorenz Duchamps
10/24/2020
Updated:
10/24/2020

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are threatening to sue an anti-Trump committee for putting up two “false” and “defamatory” billboards in New York City’s Times Square, attorneys for the couple said.

One of the billboards the Lincoln Project erected shows the daughter and Advisor for President Donald Trump making a gesture and smiling toward the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus death toll for New York residents and Americans.
The image that was used for the advertisement was reportedly taken from Ms. Trump on Twitter, in which she held and gestured toward a can of Goya black beans, the New York Post reported.

Ms. Trump’s image was edited and photoshopped to be used in the advertisement. It appears the Lincoln Project, a committee staffed by Republican operatives who are supporting Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, removed the beans can and used the First Daughter’s smile out of context.

The second billboard next to Ms. Trump shows her husband, Kushner, an investor, real estate developer, and senior advisor to President Trump. The committee used a picture of him smiling and standing next to body bags with an unrelated quote from 2019 he used before the CCP virus pandemic.

Part of the quote that reads, “[New Yorkers] are going to suffer and that’s their problem,” was taken from a Sept. 17 Vanity Fair article, that cited an anonymous source.

Kushner reportedly said during the alleged March 21 meeting that if New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo “didn’t pound the phones hard enough to get PPE for his state ... [h]is people are going to suffer and that’s their problem.”

Trump announced several days later in late March the administration shipped about 9.4 million N95 respirators, 20 million surgical masks, 3.1 million face shields, 2.6 million surgical gowns, 14.6 million gloves, and almost 6,000 ventilators “to the areas of greatest need,” which included about 4,000 ventilators to New York.

Ms. Trump and Kushner’s attorney Mark Kasowitz released a statement that was reposted by the Lincoln Project on Twitter, saying the billboards in Times Square are “false, malicious, and defamatory ads.”

“I am writing concerning the false, malicious, and defamatory ads that the Lincoln Project is displaying on billboards in Times Square,” Kasowitz wrote in the statement.

“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’ … with body bags underneath,” it continues.

Kasowitz noted that Mr. Kushner “never made any such statement, Ms. Trump never made any such gesture.” He added that the anti-Trump committee making representations that they did is “an outrageous and shameful libel.”

The attorney continued that “if these billboard ads are not immediately removed, we will sue you for what will doubtless be enormous compensatory and punitive damages.”

The Lincoln Project said on Twitter its own legal response is pending.