Joshua Thorne filed the lawsuit Monday in the Eastern Division of the Northern District of Illinois against Donald J. Trump for President Inc. on behalf of anyone who has received the text messages.
The lawsuit alleges that the committee violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which says it is illegal to send Short Message Services or text messages using an automatic telephone dialing system without the recipient's prior express consent. SMS messages and text messages often cost their recipients.
On or about March 4, 2015, Trump for President transmitted a message to Thorne's cellphone that said "Reply YES to subscribe to Donald J. Trump for President. Your subscription will help Make America Great Again! Msg&data rates may apply," according to the lawsuit.
The source of the message was "88022," which is leased by Trump for President or its affiliates and is used for operating Trump for President's text message marketing program, according to the lawsuit. The same text messages were sent to thousands of wireless telephone numbers or randomly generated phone numbers using a bulk-messaging software by the company Tatango Inc., which advertises that a person can schedule a text message to be simultaneously sent to 42,435 cellphone numbers, the lawsuit said.
Tatango offers a free guide on compliance with the TCPA on its website, which says that without appropriate disclosures and prior written express consent, businesses could be fined up to $1,500 per text message received by each customer.
Thorne is asking for statutory damages to all class members; to stop the text messages to wireless phones through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system without prior express consent; reasonable attorneys' fees and costs; and any other relief the court deems reasonable and just.
"Based on the information we have at this point, we're very confident that a violation was made and we intend to pursue it to the gates of hell," said Joseph Siprut, managing partner of Siprut PC, which is representing the plaintiffs.
Representatives of Donald Trump for President Inc. could not be reached for comment.
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