After Democrat Bob Harvie sent cease-and-desist letters demanding Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and his campaign affiliates stop saying Harvie is “under FBI investigation,” Fitzpatrick boasted to HuffPost that his challenger would never follow through with lawsuit threats.

“They said they were going to file a lawsuit. And guess what? Guess what? They didn’t file a lawsuit,” Fitzpatrick said in an interview last month. He knew his allegation was true, he said, because he’s a former FBI agent and is “well aware of what’s contained in the files that he refuses to release.” A super PAC supporting Fitzpatrick in his reelection campaign in the 1st Congressional District even offered to pay for the lawsuit.

Last week, Harvie actually sued. He filed a defamation case against Defending America PAC and Chris Pack, a Republican consultant, accusing them of “repeatedly and recklessly publishing false and defamatory statements imputing criminal conduct that go beyond the bounds even of a highly contested political campaign.”

“Put your money where your mouth is,” Harvie said in a statement. “Just tell us where to send the bills. See you in court.”

Fitzpatrick’s campaign officials did not respond to a request for comment, but the lawsuit hasn’t cowed them. Echoing Fitzpatrick, the super PAC put up a new website this week demanding Harvie release his “complete, unredacted FBI grand jury transcript, FD-302 interview reports, grand jury subpoenas, and any and all DOJ correspondence related to the FBI corruption investigation.”

Harvie, a member of the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, testified before a grand jury in 2021 as part of an FBI investigation that never resulted in charges against Harvie or anyone else. Fitzpatrick insists it’s an active case and that only Harvie can prove him wrong by releasing documents showing investigators weren’t probing his conduct.

Michael Levy, an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School who worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania for 37 years, said grand jury witnesses are not given a stack of records to take with them after they testify and that lots of witnesses are called simply to provide factual information.

“Federal grand jury proceedings are secret,” Levy told HuffPost. “Nothing should get published unless the grand jury charges somebody. So there’s no effort to identify witnesses, and sometimes there are efforts to make sure that nobody knows they actually came and testified.”

In a July interview with HuffPost, Harvie said he’s got no documents and that Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican representing a tossup district in a tough election year, was just desperate to keep his job.

Harvie also took a shot of his own, describing Fitzpatrick as owning multiple fancy homes and being “married to a Fox News reporter who’s considerably younger than he is, and so I just think he’s got a lifestyle he likes now, and he’s desperate.” (Fitzpatrick got married earlier this year.)

In response, Defending America PAC, the group supporting Fitzpatrick, added the page to its “Fire Bob Harvie” website offering to pay for his lawsuit — and slamming Harvie for “pitching bullshit cease-and-desist stories where Harvie invokes Brian Fitzpatrick’s recent marriage like the scumbag that Harvie is.”

The site went on to say “Harvie’s bank account may be a little tight after his recent divorce” and that “it may have had something to do with Harvie getting a little too cozy with a county employee.” It linked to an image of a Facebook page saying Harvie “banged” a county employee.

“Harvie never cheated on his wife and never had sex with a Bucks County employee,” Harvie’s defamation suit says. “The Facebook Publication directly accuses Harvie of engaging in an extramarital relationship with a Bucks County employee while serving as a Bucks County Commissioner and misusing his public office, in order to destroy his reputation.”

Harvie’s campaign filed its complaint this week against Defending America PAC and Pack, but not the Fitzpatrick campaign itself. A spokesperson for Defending America PAC couldn’t be reached. Pack did not respond to a request for comment through his PR firm.

Harvie’s campaign sent cease-and-desist letters to the campaign and the super PAC, but not Fitzpatrick’s campaign. A TV ad paid for by Fitzpatrick’s campaign says Harvie is “under FBI investigation” without mentioning the allegation about the county employee.

The nastiness of the campaign may speak to the stakes of the election. Fitzpatrick is one of only three House Republicans representing a district won by Kamala Harris in 2024, and Democrats view it as a prime pickup opportunity.

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