MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Republican candidate for attorney general Jay Mitchell has formally demanded that opponent Katherine Robertson retract her attack ad against him.
The 30-second ad calls Mitchell a “woke lawyer” and claims he lobbied on behalf of a Muslim country.
“Mitchell was a partner at a woke law firm that promoted DEI,” a narrator says in the ad. “That’s not all. He was a registered foreign agent for Uzbekistan and personally lobbied Hillary Clinton’s office. Woke lawyer, lobbyist for a Muslim country, that’s not Trump tough, that’s a weak fraud.”
Mitchell, a former Alabama Supreme Court justice, released a letter this weekend demanding an immediate retraction. He called the ad “defamatory” and alleged that Robertson, chief counsel to current AG Steve Marshall, made “false statements” about him.
“This ad and Katherine’s campaign statements are not just ‘politics as usual.’ They are bald-faced lies,” Mitchell said in a statement. “I have provided irrefutable facts and evidence about the matter—both to the press and to my opponent directly—that prove her claims are false. I am calling on Katherine to do the right thing and correct the record.”
Mitchell’s campaign has said that he did pro-bono legal work in the early 2000s for Sanjar Umarov, a leader of the Sunshine Coalition opposition movement in Uzbekistan. Umarov was imprisoned on charges that his supporters said were fabricated after being a vocal critic of former Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
Uzbekistan is a majority-Muslim country and former Soviet Republic in central Asia.
Mitchell’s previous statement said he briefed members of Congress about the situation, which ultimately led to both chambers passing a resolution demanding humane treatment for Umarov. Hillary Clinton was a U.S. senator representing New York at the time.
The Robertson campaign previously said the ad would air on broadcast, cable and digital in every major market in the state with an ad buy of more than $300,000.
Mitchell, Robertson and Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey will face off in the Republican primary on May 19.