Donald Trump’s campaign has vowed to take legal action and said it will launch a criminal investigation into a Pennsylvania super PAC that aired deceptive digital ads featuring clips of the former president dissuading Republicans from voting by mail.
After years of decrying mail-in voting, Trump is now embracing it and encouraging his voters to take advantage of the practice in presidential elections.
The “MAGA Patriots, listen to our president” ad from Pennsylvania Values PAC begins before Trump joins his vocal fangs denouncing mail-in voting.
In one such clip, Trump says: “The mail was completely corrupted during the election, go through that.”
The 30-second ad ends with on-screen text: “Stand with President Trump against mail-in voting!”
According to Google, the digital ad ran over the weekend. Trump’s campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to the group on Tuesday afternoon.
“We are aware of your ad falsely claiming that President Trump asked Pennsylvania voters not to vote by mail. This ad could constitute both a criminal and civil conspiracy to violate the voting rights of President Trump’s supporters in Pennsylvania. “Immediately cease and desist from broadcasting this false advertisement or otherwise distribute it on the Internet or elsewhere, and preserve all relevant documents in anticipation of possible litigation,” the Trump campaign said in a letter to the group’s publicly listed treasurer.
In the letter, the Trump campaign claimed the group violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was enacted to protect Americans from political intimidation. That was the law mentioned in the trial Against Trump and his allies for the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
Pennsylvania Values PAC spent between $10,000 and $15,000 to show the ad to more than 800,000 Pennsylvania voters, according to Google. The ad was then removed from the platform, citing Google as a policy violation.
This is the PAC’s first Google ad in nearly six years, according to Google data. During the 2018 cycle, he ran a series of ads attacking Republican Lou Barletta, who ran for Senate in 2018 against Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
An official for the group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.