A lawyer representing Republican congressional candidate Danny Tarkanian sent a cease and desist letter to his opponent Susie Lee on Monday asking her and her campaign to retract certain statements made about Tarkanian’s past business dealings and issue a public apology.

In a letter to Lee, Tarkanian’s lawyer, Marc Randazza, alleged that the Democratic congressional candidate and her campaign have published “multiple defamatory statements” relating to Tarkanian’s role setting up telemarketing companies. Tarkanian was awarded damages by the Clark County District Court after his 2004 opponent for state Senate made similar statements and is currently suing his 2016 congressional opponent, now-Rep. Jacky Rosen, over the same issue.

The four-page letter rebuffs both the claims about Tarkanian’s role relating to the telemarketing businesses, as well as those relating to Tarkanian’s bankruptcy proceedings. It includes a screenshot from a website paid for by Lee’s campaign, a tweet from Lee and a press release put out by her campaign as examples of the statements.

The letter says that Tarkanian “respects that political speech is at the core of the First Amendment’s protections” and is “willing to waive any claims against” Lee and her campaign relating to the statements as long as they retract them from all online and print media publications, issue a public apology and promise not to repeat the statements in the future. The letter asks for a reply no later than August 6 at 5 p.m.

In a statement, Tarkanian said that Lee has been a family friend for years and that he “would’ve expected better from her.”

"Instead of talking about the issues most important to Nevadans, we're seeing the same old lying and defamatory statements being spread again,” Tarkanian said.

But Lee’s campaign didn’t back down in a statement to The Nevada Independent, repeating the claims about both Tarkanian’s involvement with the telemarketing companies and his bankruptcy and saying that they are “well-documented.” Lee’s campaign manager, Brandon Cox, called the letter a “desperate, partisan attempt to muddy the waters.”

“Furthermore, these concerns about Tarkanian's record have been raised by Republicans like Senator Dean Heller and State Senator Scott Hammond, neither of whom Tarkanian has sued,” said Lee’s campaign manager Brandon Cox in the statement. “... Nevada voters deserve a real debate about the issues, not publicity stunts and a bogus lawsuit."

Tarkanian and Lee are running to represent Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, which is being vacated by Rosen as she pursues a bid for the U.S. Senate.

Disclosure: Susie Lee has donated to The Nevada Independent. You can see a full list of donors here.

Update 7/31/18 at 2:50 p.m.: A previous version of this article misspelled Marc Randazza's name.