The manager of a dancing girl group has made good on his threat to sue Donald Trump and pledges to take the case to trial.
In January, Trump held a rally in Pensacola, Florida, and a group of three girls performed a dance routine of their song “Freedom’s Call.”
Video of the pro-Trump children was a social media hit. But Jeff Popick, the group’s manager and the father of one of the girls, told CNN the Trump campaign did not give him and the girls their due.
Popick claimed the Trump campaign failed to allow the group to set up a table to sell CDs at a rally and then, after making a trek from Florida to Des Moines, Iowa, canceled the Freedom Kids’ scheduled performance. He said the Trump campaign never made the situation right and that it was worth legal action.
“This is the way they played us,” he said. “They can only ignore us for so long.”
He threatened to sue in late July, when he recounted the story in full to CNN. Popick said he believes the case will go to trial, although his lawyer said, “These types of things should be settled.”
A copy of the suit provided to CNN showed that it was filed last week, and the attorney representing the plaintiffs told CNN he expects the Trump campaign to be served with the suit in the near future, if it has not already. Upon receipt of the lawsuit, the Trump campaign will have 20 days to respond, attorney Marc Shapiro said.
Questions about the matter sent to the Trump campaign were not returned for comment.
The lawsuit seeks between $5,000 and $15,000. Shapiro and Popick both stressed that their intention was only to seek a fair compensation.
“People would look at it like it’s an opportunistic thing, and it’s not,” Popick said.
Despite his preference to keep the case away from trial, Shapiro said he was confident in the case he had built on behalf of the children against the Trump campaign. He said he had experience focusing on breach of contract cases, although also said, “I mainly do litigation of personal injury” as well as real estate matters.
As for the song that started the entire controversy, Popick repeated what he said in July: the entire experience had tainted the very song that made the group a viral sensation. “Freedom’s Call” is not on the USA Freedom Kids’ new album, and the girls still do not perform it.
“It’s just a very sad thing, that’s all,” Popick said.