FFormer San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown said in an interview with CBS News this week that he would consider suing former President Donald Trump. His comments come amid an ongoing dispute over whether the two endured a dangerous helicopter ride together – something the former president and current Republican presidential candidate says happened but Brown says he did not.
“Somebody has to make him stop lying,” Brown is quoted as saying. “If he keeps this up, I’m going to give him a taste of his own behavior someday. If he leaves the New York Just because I said he lied, I’m going to sue him.”
During an August 8 press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump was asked about Vice President Kamala Harris – the likely Democratic presidential nominee in the upcoming election – and her past relationship with Brown. (Harris and Brown are believed to have dated for a time in the mid-1990s. In 2020, Brown wrote an op-ed for the San Francisco chronicle entitled: “Sure, I was with Kamala Harris. So what?”)
In response, Trump told a story in which he described himself and Brown as passengers in a helicopter that had to make an emergency landing.
“Well, I know Willie Brown very well,” Trump said. “In fact, I flew with him in a helicopter. We thought that might be the end. There was an emergency landing.”
Trump went on to say that Brown had told him “horrible things” about Harris.
In his 2023 book Letters to Trumpin which he published his letters to a number of influential people – the former president discussed the alleged helicopter incident in the caption of a photo showing him with Brown.
“We actually had an emergency landing in a helicopter together. It was a little scary for both of us but luckily we made it,” the caption read.
But as the New York newspaper reported, Just Shortly after Trump’s press conference, Brown denied that this ever happened.
“You know me well enough to know that if I almost crashed in a helicopter with anybody, you would have heard about it,” Brown, who also denied any animosity between him and Harris, told the publication. Recent theories suggest that Trump may have confused Brown with other politicians. For example, former California Governor Jerry Brown once flew with Trump in a helicopter in 2018 to survey wildfire damage, but no emergency landing was reported. On August 9, Politico also reported that former Los Angeles City Councilman and State Senator Nate Holden claimed he once flew with Trump to New Jersey in a helicopter that ended in an emergency landing, according to a fellow passenger.
After the New York Just When Trump published the story on August 8, he fought back the next day and reportedly called Maggie Haberman, a reporter at the newspaper. According to Haberman, Trump shouted that he had evidence of the alleged helicopter flight and would “probably sue” over the article.
Now Brown has responded to Trump’s threat of legal action.
In his interview with CBS News, Brown is also quoted as saying that Trump’s story was a “deliberate misrepresentation” and was merely intended to “distract from the magnificence” of Harris’ “rise” in recent weeks since President Joe Biden endorsed her candidacy for president and much of the Democratic Party followed suit.
TIME has reached out to the Trump team and the Willie Brown Institute for comment and further information.
