Trump threatened with defamation lawsuit

Donald Trump (Photo: Twitter)

Donald Trump and his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, have been told via lawyer letter to stop making "false and defamatory" statements about Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus, or face the legal consequences.

Politico, which obtained the letter, reported attorney Bruce Barket of Barket, Marion, Epstein & Kearon in New York, said Lewandowski and Trump have falsely painted Jacobus in public statements as holding a grudge against the billionaire businessman because of her supposed failed try to obtain a job on his campaign.

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Barket said it was actually one of Trump's staffers who contacted Jacobus and asked if she was interested in working on the campaign, Politico reported.

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His letter states, in part: "By impugning Ms. Jacobus' status as an objective and serious political commentator, your live-television statements to Morning Joe and follow-up 'Tweets' were per se defamatory because they painted her as petty and biased in a profession permitting neither. Any violation of this cease-and-desist demand will be treated in Court accordingly."

Jacobus gave Politico screenshots of a May 2015 Facebook messaging chat with Jim Dornan, a Republican strategist who at the time was working for Trump, that read: "Would you consider working for us? We need a top notch communications director."

Jacobus subsequently met with Lewandowski twice at Trump Tower, but neither were interested in pursuing a professional partnership after the second meeting, Politico reported.

In January, Jacobus said during a CNN interview Trump was a "bad debater" who "comes off like a third grader faking his way through an oral report on current affairs."

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And the next day, Lewandowski said on MSNBC that Jacobus "came to the office on multiple occasions trying to get a job from the Trump campaign, and when she wasn't hired, clearly she went off and was upset by that," the letter stated, Politico reported.

Trump also later tweeted Jacobus "begged us for a job. We said no and she went hostile. A real dummy!"

Politico said Trump's campaign has not yet responded.