A judge has given businessman Vivek Ramaswamy three days to reveal the details of his alleged robocalling of voters during his presidential campaign.
On Wednesday, Ramaswamy filed an emergency stay request in an Ohio federal court and says hasn’t been given enough time to fight the order.
His lawyer, Brodi J. Conover, acknowledged that Ramaswamy could be facing contempt of court proceedings if he doesn’t hand over the robodialing information by Friday.
Ramaswamy, a former Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election, is being sued by a New Hampshire man who claims the robodailing of his cell phone is illegal.
Andreas Solaro/Getty Images
Newsweek sought email comment from Conover on Thursday. Ramaswamy’s office has also been contacted for comment via email.
On Wednesday, Conover asked a federal court to stay the magistrate court’s order the previous day to “inform Plaintiff of the identity of the dialer provider(s) within three days of this Order.”
The “dialer” at the center of the court order is the automatically dialing company Ramaswamy allegedly used to contact Republican voters in various states.
Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur, later withdrew from the 2024 presidential race and endorsed Donald Trump.
An Ohio magistrate judge gave Ramaswamy until Friday, April 5, to reveal the identity of the dialing company and to disclose other information to the plaintiffs.
“Mr. Ramaswamy desires to move with the speed necessary to bring the matter before the Court quickly while also being cognizant of the Magistrate Judge ordering Mr. Ramaswamy to provide the identity of the dialer provider by Friday,” Conover wrote in Wednesday’s federal court filing.
“Without the stay, Mr. Ramaswamy is left with a Hobson’s choice. He desires to object to the Magistrate Judge’s Order requiring him to identify the dialer provider by Friday. But absent a stay, he must comply with the Magistrate Judge’s Order and identify the dialer provider by Friday lest be found in contempt of the Order,” Conover’s filing states.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a Hobson’s choice as “the necessity of accepting one of two or more equally objectionable alternatives.”
Conover added that the information is “arguably First Amendment-protected political speech (campaign call logs and lists).”
Conover also complains that “Mr. Ramaswamy first appeared in this case just two days ago by filing a motion to dismiss for lack of standing, failure to join the correct party, and failure to state a claim.”
According to the suit, Ramaswamy or his campaign team used pre-recorded calls using the entrepreneur’s voice to contact potential voters on their cellular phones without obtaining their consent first.
The robocalls invited people to take part in a “teleforum town hall” and they would be connected to the event if they stayed on the line or pressed one on their phone’s keypads, before Ramaswamy appeared on the call to push for votes.
New Hampshire man Thomas Grant, who filed the suit, said he received several of these calls during Ramaswamy’s campaign and that they were made “en masse” without his prior express consent.
Grant is now accusing Ramaswamy or his team of violating the Pre-recorded No Consent Class and is calling for up to $1,500 in damages for each violation.
Grant said that he received at least eight of these robocalls to his personal cell phone between July and October 2023.
The calls started with a voice saying they were from Ramaswamy’s campaign and explaining that a telephone town hall event is currently taking place and to “stay on the line and you’ll be automatically connected to this unique opportunity to talk with Vivek and ask questions.”
During a call on August 8, 2023, Grant stayed on the line and the call cut to Ramaswamy saying, “communist China for our modern way of life anymore. I will tell you in January of 2033, that we no longer apologize for success. That we no longer…” before Grant disconnected.
The suit also details complaints from people who received the calls and discussed them on the 800Notes website, a reverse phone number lookup database where people log calls from suspicious numbers.
Uncommon Knowledge
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