Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has allegedly been sent a cease and desist letter to stop the use of President Trump’s likeness in a “deceptive” manner in his Senate campaign.
Brnovich, who is currently running in the Republican primary to go up against Democrat Senator Mark Kelly in November, has previously ran a number of adverts linking him to President Trump. According to data available from Facebook, Brnovich’s campaign claimed that people could “endorse Trump for President in 2024” by donating.
Other adverts insinuate that people would be “turning [their] back” on Trump by not donating, encouraging them to “renew” their “2022 membership.”
A recent email from the Brnovich campaign featured the subject line “ACCOUNT TERMINATION NOTICE,” threatening potential donors with losing “[a]ny chance of continuing to receive our Trump polls, Trump rally alerts, and 2024 Endorsement opportunities.”
Earlier this week, the Washington Post reported that a lawyer from Trump had issued Brnovich a cease and desist letter to prevent any more adverts with similar messaging or imagery from being sent.
“Your use of President Trump’s name, image, and/or likeness is likely to deceive individuals into believing President Trump supports, endorses, or otherwise promotes your candidacy for U.S. Senate in Arizona — he does not,” the attorney wrote in the email, adding that people may be confused by some of the adverts into thinking that they were really giving money to Trump.
“In Republican politics, President Trump’s endorsement wins races at an unprecedented rate and nearly every dollar being raised and every vote being earned is thanks to the movement and brand he created,” said Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich. “It’s no surprise that every candidate in the nation is trying to tap into it.”
Trump has endorsed Brnovich’s opponent, Blake Masters, instead of the Arizona Attorney General. In fact, in his endorsement message of Masters, Trump slammed Brnovich as a complete “disappointment,” for his failures to act on findings from the Maricopa County 2020 forensic audit.
“As Attorney General, Mark Brnovich is supposed to protect Arizonans from fraud,” wrote Masters in an email statement. “Instead, Brnovich has been misleading donors, implying that President Trump supports him — a lie that prompted Trump’s lawyers to send a cease and desist. (Yikes.)”
“It’s clear that, as Mark Brnovich continues to plummet in the polls, his legal ethics have gone out the window,” the statement continued. “This leaves us wondering: If Mark Brnovich is willing to deceive his own voters to win, what will he do once in office?”
