Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump suing Lincoln Project over 'defamatory' billboards?

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have threatened to sue The Lincoln Project, a prominent Republican group opposing the president, for billboards it put up in Times Square, Manhattan.

The ads by the Lincoln Project, show a smiling Ivanka Trump gesturing toward the coronavirus death tolls for New Yorkers and Americans. The picture of US president Donald Trump's daughter appears to be a selfie that she tweeted in July in which she holds and gestures toward a can of Goya black beans.

In the other giant billboard, Jared Kushner, senior advisor to Trump, is shown next to body bags and a quote that reads, "[New Yorkers] are going to suffer and that's their problem." The quote attributed to him is from an interview that he gave to Vanity Fair in September.

The giant-sized billboards by Lincoln Project blasts the couple's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Meanwhile, on Friday the Lincoln Project tweeted the letter it received from Trump family lawyer Marc Kasowitz. In the letter, Kushner and Ivanka's lawyer has threatened to sue the group unless it "immediately" removes the ads, calling them "false, malicious, and defamatory."

"Of course, Mr. Kushner never made any such statement, Ms. Trump never made any such gesture, and the Lincoln Project's representations that they did are an outrageous and shameful libel," Kasowitz wrote.

"If these billboard ads are not immediately removed, we will sue you for what will doubtless be enormous compensatory and punitive damages," the letter added.

The Lincoln Project's legal response is pending. "It is unsurprising that an administration that has never had any regard or understanding of our Constitution would try to trample on our first amendment rights," the PAC responded. It continued, "But we fully intend on making this civics lesson as painful as possible."

In an alleged March 21 White House meeting between Kushner and an ad hoc private sector group, he had said the above about United States' coronavirus response. However, the quote attributed to Trump's senior advisor was reportedly fed to the magazine by an anonymous attendee, and the version in the ad lacks the original context.