Dear Voters and Colleagues:
As you may be aware, I am running for Judge of Division D of the 24th JDC. My opponent is Lindsey Valenti, from whom you most likely received a recent email blast regarding a press release issued by the Judicial Campaign Oversight Committee on April 2, 2024. Given the nature of this issue and the presentation by the Valenti Campaign, I thought some explanation would bring clarity to this issue.
Last month, my opponent Lindsey Valenti made false statements about me, alleging that I had been accused of misconduct while I served as an Assistant District Attorney. The statements were wholly untrue. Ms.Valenti knew these statements were false when she published them.
I filed a complaint with the Louisiana Supreme Court’s Judicial Campaign Oversight Committee, which was created and authorized by the Supreme Court, Louisiana Supreme Court Rule XXXV, to address campaign issues. During the Committee’s handling of the complaint, I repeatedly communicated with Maurine Laborde, Staff Attorney, General Counsel’s Office for the Louisiana Supreme Court, who ultimately notified me by letter that Ms. Valenti had entered into an informal resolution and agreed that she would stop saying these things.
However, while the complaint was pending AND before she entered into her agreement, Ms. Valenti disseminated a mailer repeating these same false statements. Following her entry into the informal agreement, I approved a flyer to address these false claims, directly copying the language of the letter from the Supreme Court’s committee. There was also a link to the complete letter on the mailer.
On April 2, 2024, the Committee issued a public statement against me, because my response flyer identified the action taken as coming from the “Supreme Court” instead of the “Louisiana Supreme Court’s Louisiana Judicial Campaign Oversight Committee.” As you can see from the attached images, during my initial correspondence with Maurine Laborde, she identified herself as a Staff Attorney for the Supreme Court Office of General Counsel, a representation that I relied upon. On the day that Ms. Laborde emailed me the public statement issued, she modified her title to “Maurine Laborde, Staff Attorney, Judicial Campaign Oversight Committee”. I have included screenshots of the different signature blocks to this email.
It is concerning that the Committee permitted my politically connected opponent to enter into an informal resolution after making up utterly false allegations about my ethics, and publicly censured me for not using the word “Committee” at the top of my response flyer, when I clearly indicated the Committee had taken action by printing a portion of their letter.
The fact that remains is that my opponent lied about my qualifications and suffered little to no consequence and now celebrates via mass mail outs and social media posts the Committee’s sanction for my perceived misattribution. I hope this clarifies this issue. I am proud of my record of public service and will not allow it to be impugned.
Unfortunately, I am compelled to fully address this issue in this manner to clarify any misimpression left by my opponent's misleading correspondence. I apologize for the intrusion and thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Jackie Maloney