Former Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell is demanding a retraction from rival in the 2026 Alabama Attorney General’s race, Katherine Robertson, over a video advertisement produced by the campaign that is hitting airwaves and digital across the state.

Mitchell did so through a formal demand letter for retraction under Alabama’s libel statute.

In the letter, Mitchell accused her campaign of running a “defamatory advertisement” about his decades-old pro bono legal work and continuing to air it even after his documentation was made public.

The letter singles out three statements from the Robertson ad that Mitchell calls “demonstrably false” — that he once served as “a registered foreign agent for Uzbekistan,” that he was “a lobbyist for a Muslim Country,” and that he “represented a Muslim regime.”

“None of these statements are true,” Mitchell wrote. “To the contrary, I was fighting against the corrupt government of Uzbekistan.”

“This ad and Katherine’s campaign statements are not just ‘politics as usual,’” Mitchell said in a statement to the press alongside a copy of the letter he sent directly to Robertson and her campaign

“They are bald-faced lies. I have provided irrefutable facts and evidence about the matter — both to the press and to my opponent directly — that prove her claims are false. I am calling on Katherine to do the right thing and correct the record.”

According to Mitchell’s campaign, Robertson has spent at least $410,933 to broadcast the ad statewide.

The language “knowingly” or with “reckless disregard for the truth” is the standard of malice standard set by New York Times v. Sullivan which is the constitutional bar a public figure has to clear to win a defamation case.

Robertson’s campaign was unmoved.

“We stand by the ad,” Dalton Dismukes, general consultant for the Robertson campaign, said in a statement to Yellowhammer News.

“Justice Department records reflect that Jay Mitchell was a registered foreign agent for a Muslim oligarch in Uzbekistan and personally lobbied Hillary Clinton’s office. The U.S. government requires an individual to register as a foreign agent when acting at the direction of a foreign government or a political party of another country. Alabama voters deserved to know this, given the absurd claims made in Mitchell’s own ads about himself.”

Mitchell has not yet indicated whether he will pursue legal action if she declines.

The Republican primary is May 19. Mitchell, Robertson, and Pamela Casey are the three candidates in the race.