[quote] Kimberly Klacik, a former Republican congressional candidate in Maryland, is suing conservative commentator Candace Owens for $20 million in damages over an Instagram video Owens made in June in which she alleged Klacik had committed campaign fraud, money laundering, illegally used drugs and was a “madame” of a strip club, according to court documents.
[quote] The lawsuit, filed in Baltimore County Circuit Court, alleges Klacik lost a book deal, had politicians cancel fundraising appearances with her and lost a contract with a “nationally recognized vendor,” after Owens posted the video June 22. In the 44-minute Instagram live video, Owens said Klacik’s charity Potential Me was illegitimate, that Klacik was a stripper at a club owned by her husband and that she misused campaign funds, according to the lawsuit.
From the Washington Post March 2021:
[quote] “We raised close to $2 million,” the Republican congressional hopeful said of the three-minute spot, which showed her marching in a red dress and high heels past abandoned buildings in Baltimore, asserting that Democrats do not care about Black lives.
[quote] But later that night, Klacik’s staff told her it would be best to stop disclosing how much money the ad had raised for her campaign against Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D) — because she wouldn’t be keeping much of it, Klacik recounted in an interview.
[quote] The company that produced the video, Arsenal Media Group, would take a cut. And a firm hired to promote the video, Olympic Media, would keep up to 70 percent of the money it generated, some of which was not disclosed in Klacik’s initial campaign finance filings.
[quote] Another Republican long-shot candidate in a deep-blue district, Lacy Johnson, also worked with Olympic. But his campaign manager, Anton Lazzaro, considered the firm’s rates reasonable in comparison with those of other vendors they encountered.
[quote] Lazzaro stopped working with digital fundraiser Bryan Rudnick, for example, after signing a contract that gave Rudnick’s firm 80 percent of the money it brought in for Johnson from new donors.
[quote] Arsenal contracted with Benny Johnson, a Newsmax TV host and the chief creative officer at Turning Point USA, to script and direct the ad, which the firm asked prominent Republican activists to share online.
From JoeMyGod:
[quote] Klacik first appeared on JMG in 2019 when Trump posted 19 tweets about her in a single day in response to her campaign videos claiming that late Rep. Elijah Cummings’ Baltimore district was a rat-infested “garbage dump.” Klacik lost the election to now-Rep. Kweisi Mfume by over 40 points.
The video: