Willie Brown to Trump: Tell That Story and I'll Sue

California politician says he doesn't want GOP nominee to speak his name
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 18, 2024 10:00 AM CDT
Brown Threatens to Sue Trump for Repeating Helicopter Story
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown speaks outside John's Grill in San Francisco in October.   (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Willie Brown has called Donald Trump on his threat to sue the New York Times over its reporting on a tale the presidential candidate told about the two of them nearly crashing in a helicopter long ago. In Trump's account, he and Brown were almost killed when the helicopter had to make an emergency landing, after the California politician had regaled the billionaire with his dislike of Kamala Harris. Brown maintains none of that happened and has now threated to fight back with a tool familiar to Trump. "If he keeps it up, at some point, I'm going to give him a taste of his own conduct," Brown said, CBS News reports. "If he sues the New York Times for printing that I said he lied, I'm going to sue him."

Asked by reporters Saturday in San Francisco, Brown said he's not waiting for Trump to suddenly say he's sorry for spreading the story; he'd rather hear nothing from the former president. "No, I don't want his apology," Brown said. "I don't want him to mention my name." Joe Cotchett, Brown's lawyer, said his client has never sued anybody, per the Times. "But you know who's pushing him to it? A guy by the name of Trump," Cotchett said. It would be a slander and defamation suit, Brown said.

A former state senator and city councilman in Los Angeles said he once took a dicey helicopter ride with Trump, so maybe the GOP nominee confused two Black California politicians. "He needs to apologize to Nate Holden; that's who his passenger was," Brown said Saturday, per KRON. Brown said Trump's purpose is to disparage the Democratic presidential nominee. The former mayor of San Francisco said he'd "absolutely" follow through with a lawsuit if Trump persists, per CBS, because, "I do not want any acquaintanceship with Willie Brown to be a negative for anybody, particularly someone as much of a dear friend as Vice President Harris is." (More Willie Brown stories.)

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