Trump Aide Threatens To Sue WaPo For Reporting Ties To Super PAC

**HOLD FOR STORY**Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump walks with his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, left, after speaking at a news conference, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015, in Dubuque, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Pro-Donald Trump super PACs do exist despite the Republican presidential frontrunner’s public disdain for them.

But none actually are sanctioned by Trump, according to campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who The Washington Post reported Sunday had threatened to sue the newspaper if it said that the real estate mogul gave his blessing to a super PAC that has ties to his campaign.

Trump has publicly eschewed super PACs and big-money donors since he launched his campaign, which he says is largely self-funded, in June. The billionaire frequently attacks his presidential rivals as being beholden to their wealthy benefactors while reminding voters that his massive personal wealth makes him independent of special interests.

But The Washington Post reported that Trump’s campaign has close ties to the Make America Great Again PAC, which employs a Colorado-based Republican consultant who previously worked with Lewandowski. Anonymous sources told The Post that Mike Cilletti had been a vendor for Americans for Prosperity, the outside conservative group, when Lewandowski worked there prior to joining Trump’s campaign.

Lewandowski initially denied to The Post that he knew Ciletti. The campaign manager later admitted that he knew of Ciletti after the newspaper asked him about payments the Trump campaign made to Ciletti’s printing and marketing shop, WizBang Solutions.

Lewandowski hung up when pressed for more details about his relationship to Ciletti, according to the report. Ciletti did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

Trump also has appeared at two events for the Make America Great Again PAC, including a “meet-and-greet” at the Jersey Shore estate of Charles and Seryl Kushner, his daughter Ivanka’s in-laws, according to the report. A Kushner family spokesman told the newspaper that Seryl Kushner made a $100,000 donation to the super PAC that Trump did not solicit.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. I wonder if Pres. Trump will threaten to sue Kim Jong-Un if he rattles his saber too much?
    Or Majority Leader Reid if he doesn’t move fast enough on Trump’s appointment of Carl Icahn to the Fed Chairmanship??
    Or Chief Justice Roberts for telling him, “no, even if you tell the governor of California, ‘you’re fired,’ on tevee, it does not make it so.”.

  2. Avatar for jw1 jw1 says:

    WizBang Solutions.

    They’re yuuuuuuuuuge!

    jw1

  3. Yeah, not happening:

    New York Times v. Sullivan
    https://www.oyez.org/cases/1963/39

    The Court held that the First Amendment protects the publication of all statements, even false ones, about the conduct of public officials except when statements are made with actual malice (with knowledge that they are false or in reckless disregard of their truth or falsity). Under this new standard, Sullivan’s case collapsed.

  4. The billionaire frequently attacks his presidential rivals as being beholden to their wealthy benefactors while reminding voters that his massive personal wealth makes him independent of special interests.

    Trump is also beholden to his main donor and special interest…and they are both the same and a moron…they are himself!

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

13 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for jw1 Avatar for afblac Avatar for rich_in_nj Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for sf_brian Avatar for drf55 Avatar for captaincommonsense Avatar for dickweed Avatar for claimsadjuster Avatar for dave_mb Avatar for dnl Avatar for cincypix Avatar for poindexter Avatar for edhedh Avatar for jalus Avatar for rickjones Avatar for delmar Avatar for Landshark2995

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: