CHRIS K.

GOBER

PO BOX 341016
AUSTIN, TX 78734

512.354.1783 DIRECT
CG@GOBERGROUP.COM

August 10, 2020

VIA EMAIL TO TODD@NAPLES.LAW

Byron Donalds
c/o Todd Allen, Esq.
13180 Livingston Rd., Ste. 206
Naples, FL 34109

Re: Cease and Desist Letter from Byron Donalds

Dear Mr. Allen:

Our firm represents Mr. Casey Askar and his campaign committee, Casey Askar
for Congress. I am responding to your letter on behalf of Mr. Byron Donalds, dated
August 7, 2020, in which you complain that Casey Askar for Congress has made “false
and baseless statements” claiming Mr. Donalds supported or voted for President Barack
Obama. Unfortunately for Mr. Donalds, your letter does more to confirm the reality that
he supported President Barack Obama than to rebut it.

Since your letter fails to mention them, perhaps Mr. Donalds has not provided
you all the facts regarding his history as a Democrat. Here are some facts you should be
aware of:

1. The Supervisor of Elections for Collier County, Florida has confirmed in

writing that Mr. Donalds registered as a Democrat on April 21, 2003.1

1 See Exhibit A.
 TODD B. ALLEN, ESQ.
AUGUST 10, 2020
PAGE 2 OF 4

2. Publicly available records obtained from Collier County, Florida confirm

that Mr. Donalds voted by mail in the 2004 general election,2 a race in
which John Kerry was the Democratic Party’s nominee for U.S. President.

3. Publicly available records obtained from Collier County, Florida confirm

that Mr. Donalds voted in the 2006 general election on November 7, 2006,
an election in which Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) was re-elected and the
Democratic Party took control of the U.S. Senate and the House of
Representatives.3

4. Publicly available records obtained from Collier County, Florida further

confirm that Mr. Donalds voted in the 2008 Democratic primary election on
August 26, 2008, and in the 2008 general election on November 4, 2008.4 Of
course, Barack Obama was the nominee for Mr. Donalds’s Democratic
Party.

5. The Supervisor of Elections for Collier County, Florida has confirmed in

writing that Mr. Donalds did not register as a Republican until March 11,
2010, 484 days after Barack Obama was elected President of the United
States.5

To support your allegation that our campaign “knew the allegations [that Mr.
Donalds supported President Barack Obama] were false” and “proceeded with the
allegation out of pure malice”, it appears you scoured Mr. Donalds’s Facebook page to
find the rare occasions in which Mr. Donalds criticized: (i) three Obama-era policies; (ii)
a single Obama political appointment; and (iii) campaign contributions that Obama
received from AIG. The struggle to find information that could conceivably rebut the
allegation that Mr. Donalds supported President Barack Obama is apparent.

What is more apparent, however, is what your letter does not say.

To be clear, if it was your intention to put my clients on notice that the statements
that Mr. Donalds supported President Barack Obama is false, then I would expect you

2 See Exhibit B.
3 Id.
4 Id.
5 See Exhibit A.
 TODD B. ALLEN, ESQ.
AUGUST 10, 2020
PAGE 3 OF 4

to make the unambiguous assertion that Mr. Donalds neither supported nor voted for
President Barack Obama. That assertion is glaringly absent from your letter, so your
notice is insufficient to support a potential legal claim.

What your letter does say is that “[t]here is nothing you could have discerned
from Mr. Donalds’ [sic] social media activity or his political activities that indicates that
he actually did vote for or support President Barack Obama.” My clients are stumped as
to why they are obligated to “discern” anything from a few Facebook posts since
government records confirm that Mr. Donalds: (i) registered as a Democrat on April 21,
2003; (ii) voted in the 2008 Democratic primary election and 2008 general election; and
(iii) did not register as a Republican until 484 days after Barack Obama was elected
President of the United States.

In summary, your letter does more to confirm the reality that Mr. Donalds
supported President Barack than to rebut it.

Given the elements of Florida law and the standard established by the United
States Supreme Court in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), a seminal
case cited in your letter, I urge you to review my clients’ advertisements and the facts
more closely. Such a review will confirm that none of the statements made in the
advertisements satisfy the elements for defamation, much less actual malice.

Of course, Mr. Donalds and his campaign are free to disseminate information as
they see fit to respond to the statements and advertisements from opposing campaigns.
It is an entirely different matter, however, to threaten a defamation action because my
clients are making the public aware of Mr. Donalds’s documented history as a
Democrat. In fact, it is laughable to suggest that Florida voters should not be allowed to
hear such information when a D.C.-based “super PAC” has spent more than $1 million
to convince voters that Mr. Donalds is a conservative.

In conclusion, I would be remiss if I did not explicitly state the obvious: The truth
is an absolute defense to a defamation claim. Thus, because your letter does more to
confirm the reality that Mr. Donalds supported President Barack Obama than to rebut
it, your client has no legal basis to demand that our campaign cease airing its
advertisements.
 TODD B. ALLEN, ESQ.
AUGUST 10, 2020
PAGE 4 OF 4

Sincerely,

Chris K. Gober
Counsel, Casey Askar for Congress
EXHIBIT A
 Peter Thompson <peterthompson930@gmail.com>

Byron Donalds record request

1 message

DominiqueShavontae <Shavontae.Dominique@colliercountyfl.gov> Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 4:40 PM

To: "peterthompson930@gmail.com" <peterthompson930@gmail.com>

Good Afternoon, Peter

Here’s an attachment of Mr. Byron Donalds voting history. Your request, if he had any party changes. He registered as Dem on 4/21/03, he later change to REP on 3/11/10.

Thanks,

Shavontae Dominique
Customer Service Representative

Jennifer J. Edwards
Supervisor of Elections
Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Building
3750 Enterprise Ave
Naples FL 34104
(239)252-8683
www.colliervotes.com

Under Florida Law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by telephone or in writing.

Untitled.PDF - Adobe Acrobat Pro.pdf

44K
EXHIBIT B
103089553 Donalds, Byron Lowell (Elections)

CLL 103089553 Donalcis, Byron L

Elec# Date Name EViD Sig Status/History
-
14642. lndiqo Ud<

117 3/17/2020 2020 Pres Preference y Voted

IPrimarv
114 11/6/2018 2018 General Election y Voted Early

113 8/28/2018 2018 Primary Election y Voted Early

108 11/8/2016 2016 General Election y Voted Early
109 8/30/2016 2016 Primary Election y Voted Early

107 3/15/2016 2016 Presidential Primary y Voted Early

103 11/4/2014 2014 General Election N Voted Early

102 8/26/2014 2014 Primary Election y Voted Early .

99 11/6/2012 2012 General Election y Voted

98 8/14/2012 2012 Primary Election y Voted Early

97 1/31/2012 Pres Preference Primary y Voted

12012
90 11/2/2010 2010 General Election N Voted Early

89 8/24/2010 2010 Primary Election N Voted

84 11/4/2008 2008 General Election N Voted

83 8/26/2008 2008 Primary Election N Voted

80 11/7/2006 11/07/2006 GEN N Voted

64 11/2/2004 !General Election N Voted by Mail