PHOENIX, Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne filed a defamation lawsuit against the Arizona Public Integrity Alliance over ads the group ran about an FBI investigation.
Horne and his wife filed the suit in Maricopa County, Courthouse News Service reported Wednesday. Horne filed the suit as an individual, not as a holder of public office.
The ads this month originally suggested Horne was currently under investigation. In fact, the investigation into alleged coordination between his campaign and a political action committee during the 2010 campaign ended in October 2012 with federal authorities and the Maricopa County prosecutor deciding against criminal charges.
Bill Montgomery, the Maricopa district attorney, did impose civil penalties on Horne and an aide.
Horne says the alliance changed broadcast and print ads when he notified them their information was not correct but did not change a Facebook ad.
In their complaint, Horne and his wife say the group was out to "intentionally to deceive the public as part of a strategy to illegitimately undermine Mr. Horne's public standing before the 2014 election where Mr. Horne will be campaigning to be re-elected as the Arizona attorney general."
Several Alliance directors are also named as defendants.
