Lawyers for Gov. JB Pritzker have threatened to sue Chicago television stations for running an anti-Pritzker ad created by a political action committee run by conservative activist Dan Proft, as the Pritzker camp continues its efforts to limit the reach of Proft-affiliated political publications.
In a letter dated Sept. 21, attorneys Courtney Weisman and Jonathan Berkon, of the Elias Law Group, demanded television stations immediately stop running an ad, sponsored by the group known as the People Who Play By The Rules PAC.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker
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Miles works at the Hines Veterans Administration Hospital in Maywood.
Miles, who is a Black woman and identifies herself in the ad as a “lifelong Democrat,” received nearly 70,000 votes in that election.
In the ad, Miles further calls on Illinois voters to “stand up to JB Pritzker’s mafia politics,” saying values like “duty and honor … mean nothing to Gov. Pritzker…”
“We put Pritzker in office. He failed us,” Miles concludes in the ad.
The People Who Play By The Rules PAC has sought to air the ad on TV stations in the Chicago market, as part of its efforts to defeat Pritzker this fall.
Pritzker, who has been in office since 2019, is running for reelection as the Democratic nominee against Republican State Sen. Darren Bailey.
After the ads aired, Pritzker’s lawyers sent letters to the local stations, demanding they cease airing the PBR PAC ads.
The ads assert Miles’ claims in the ads amount to defamation against the governor, and, by airing the ads, the TV stations could also be subject to legal action.
While acknowledging the ad is a political advertisement, they claim Miles’ claims aren’t protected as political speech against a prominent political figure during an election campaign.
“Your station is now on notice that it is airing a false and defamatory claim for which there is no evidence,” Pritzker’s lawyers wrote. “Unlike candidates, independent organizations like the PAC do not have a ‘right to command the use of broadcast facilities.’
“Because you need not air this advertisement, your station bears responsibility for its content when you do grant access. Moreover, you have a duty ‘to protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising.’
“Your continued airing of this ad therefore exposes your station to a defamation claim.”
In the letter, Pritzker’s lawyers claim Pritzker has denied Miles’ claim outright.
The letter includes a statement, purportedly from Pritzker, stating: “I never took any actions that would have caused Ms. Miles to lose her job, nor did I ever direct anyone on my staff, or otherwise, to take such actions.”
They said Miles’ claims are “plainly false,” and the ad is defamatory because neither Miles nor her attorney have presented evidence linking Pritzker to a complaint filed against Miles to her employer.
In response to questions from The Cook County Record, Proft said the ad reflects “a reasonable, good-faith belief that Pritzker world attempted to punish her for running against him for governor, as she says in the ad.”
“She has a right to make this assertion,” Proft said.
Proft said local TV stations contacted him with concerns after receiving the letter from Pritzker’s lawyers.
Proft provided The Cook County Record with a copy of a message he says he sent to the stations concerning the defamation claims.
Shortly after Miles announced her run for governor, and her candidacy was covered by the Chicago Sun-Times, Proft said Miles' attorney told her the VA’s Office of Special Counsel had received a complaint from someone asserting her candidacy violated the law.
Essentially, the complaint asserted that, under federal law, she could not run for governor while also working at the VA.
Proft said Miles was informed that “the complaint came from ‘high up’ politically speaking.”
“The accompanying ultimatum was, resign your position or resign your candidacy,” Proft said. “Given the timing, context, demand and who stood to benefit, (Miles) reasonably inferred the complaint was made on behalf of Pritzker’s political interests and for his benefit. In fact, to believe otherwise given the storied political culture in Chicago and Illinois would be wildly naïve.”
Proft said Pritzker’s claims for defamation are “absurd as a matter of law,” given Pritzker’s status as a public figure and elected official.
Proft said the People Who Play By The Rules PAC edited the video, at the request of some of the stations, out of concerns the stations had with certain phrases used in the ad, including “Pritzker’s mafia politics.”
Proft noted the PBR PAC has not received any legal threats from Pritzker’s lawyers over the ad.
Neither Pritzker’s lawyers, the governor’s office, nor his campaign manager responded to questions about the letter sent Monday morning by The Cook County Record, including the question of why the governor, through his counsel, believed it appropriate to send such legal threats to TV stations over a political ad critical of the governor.
The lawsuit threats from Pritzker’s lawyers come as Pritzker and his campaign team have moved in recent days to pressure media organizations to cut ties with Proft-affiliated media and take down ads.
In early September, TV stations took down an ad produced by People Who Play By The Rules, called “The Scream.” That ad featured footage of a woman screaming when she was attacked by men seeking to rob her while she was walking in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, followed by the question: “How much worse does it have to get?”
The ad was designed to attack the criminal justice reforms supported by Pritzker, which the PAC and other Pritzker critics say has led to a surge in violent crime and made Chicago and Illinois less safe.
Pritzker and his allies condemned the ad, and TV stations then refused to continue airing it, citing various concerns with the ad and its content.
Most recently, Pritzker’s campaign pressured Paddock Publications, which publishes The Daily Herald newspaper, to stop using its commercial printing presses to print newspapers that included comments by Illinois police and state’s attorneys critical of Pritzker for his support of the so-called “SAFE-T Act,” which among other things will eliminate cash bail for a range of violent offenses on Jan. 1, 2023.
The newspapers are published by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), a company Proft helped found in 2015. It publishes 35 news web sites and corresponding newspapers across the state.
Pritzker threatened to pull out of a candidate’s forum, organized by the Illinois Associated Press Media Editors, and sponsored by The Daily Herald.
After Paddock agreed to stop printing the papers, Pritzker agreed to participate in the forum.
Proft asserted Pritzker is leaning on Chicago media to prevent messages critical of the governor from being aired during the fall campaign season.
“What Chicago media is doing is make it as difficult as possible to run ads critical of Pritzker regardless of the substantiation,” Proft said.
“Meanwhile, Pritzker is allowed to run ads without pushback from these same networks featuring manifestly false assertions both about himself and his opponent, State Sen. Darren Bailey, that do not meet the standards they are applying to ads produced by PBR PAC.”
The Elias Law Group, which is representing Pritzker in the matter, is a Washington, D.C.-based firm that specializes in representing Democratic Party political interests. The firm served the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, hiring the political opposition researchers that created the discredited Steele Dossier. Clinton allies and others within the Democratic Party used that document to promote an investigation into Russian influence within the campaign of former President Donald Trump.
The Elias group in recent years has also combatted Republican efforts to enact reforms they say are needed to ensure secure and transparent election results.