McCrory drops lawsuit over ad
A spokesman for Republican candidate Pat McCrory says he won't pursue a lawsuit over a campaign ad. A group allied with Democrats says they'll keep pursuing a related case.
Posted — Updated"We made the decision that Friday of Memorial Day not to move forward with anything," said Brian Nick, a spokesman for McCory.
Citizens for Progress had launched aired an ad that suggested McCrory used his position as Mayor of Charlotte to help a private company, Tree.com, in exchange to for a lucrative seat on the Tree.com board.
On May 24, McCrory filed notice that he planned to sue over the ad. In a court document, he called statements in the ad "fraudulent and defamatory."
But the campaign never followed up with a full complaint. On Monday, the deadline passed for the campaign to file that full complaint.
Nick said Citizens for Progress has since altered the ad and stopped running it on television.
"We felt like what we were doing has been accomplished," Nick said.
However, Michael Weisel, a lawyer for Citizens for Progress, said the case won't just go away.
That's because immediately after McCrory filed his suit, Citizens for Progress filed a kind of counter suit, seeking a declaration that their ad was truthful.
"We are still moving forward," Weisel said. "There is a complaint filed that they have to respond to."
Weisel wouldn't comment further on the Citizens for Progress suit Tuesday. However, others knowledgeable about the case have said it would give the group and excuse to request records from and depose McCrory.
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