Republican gubernatorial candidate Adam Laxalt’s Virginia-based law firm is striking back at his Democratic opponent Steve Sisolak’s lawyer, saying accusations that Laxalt is defaming her are baseless and she’ll lose if she tries to take the matter to court.

The nine-page letter from the firm of Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky to Sisolak’s lawyer Laura FitzSimmons is the latest strongly worded volley in the Nevada governor’s race stemming from statements in commercials and on ShadySteve.com, a Laxalt-backed opposition website which portrays Sisolak’s actions on the Clark County Commission as pay to play and cronyism.

“Your attempt to use the threat of baseless litigation to hide critical information about Mr. Sisolak and yourself is nothing short of ‘silence coerced by law’ — the argument of force in its worst form,” Laxalt lawyer Jason Torchinsky wrote to FitzSimmons in a letter dated Thursday. “And it goes directly against the values that Nevadans and Adam share. And, again, it is sad.”

The letter says the campaign “stands by every word” that it has published and says “we would certainly welcome the opportunity to show Nevadans, through public judicial proceedings, all the facts and evidence that reinforce the truth of everything that the public has heard.” They also threaten that she’ll be responsible for “significant” damages under Nevada’s anti-SLAPP statute, which aims to prevent lawsuits that chill speech on issues of public concern.

Contacted by a reporter, FitzSimmons said she hadn’t yet seen the letter and she had no immediate timetable to file a defamation lawsuit, but wanted to see the extent of what the Laxalt campaign said about her before proceeding with litigation.

“They’re not done with me. I’m going to wait,” she said. “This is just their first foray into me. I’m not going to file piecemeal litigation.”

In a follow up call, FitzSimmons said the letter was an attempt to reiterate past claims against her and Sisolak but without any legal basis, and challenged Laxalt, the state’s attorney general, to use his prosecutorial powers if he actually believed she or Sisolak had violated any laws.

“This is an escalation. And it's not based on facts or law. Obviously they’re just trying to get free advertising,” she said. “If they believe I’ve broken the law, (then) he’s the attorney general, he ought to prosecute me.”

The website and recent advertisements by the Laxalt campaign highlight connections between Sisolak and FitzSimmons, including a $9.9 million settlement she negotiated with an out-of-state businessman on behalf of the county in 2015. She also represented Sisolak in a 2003 property rights case against the county that resulted in a $16 million settlement.

Laxalt’s lawyer defends the campaign’s use of the term “slush fund” and “cronies” in advertisements about Sisolak, and the term “consigliere” to describe FitzSimmons, saying the terms aren’t necessarily pejorative and asserting that it’s not defamatory. Torchinsky also writes that many of the criticisms of Sisolak don’t name FitzSimmons, which weaken her case for defamation.

His lawyers even went a step further, calling FitzSimmons’ defensiveness regarding her legal dealings with Sisolak “revealing.”

“If you have any other information regarding criminal activity that he may be involved in, which is not covered under your privilege as his longtime personal attorney, please refer it to the proper authorities,” the letter stated.

Laxalt’s attorney raises the specter that a lawsuit would open up discovery and allow them to dig into documents about a lucrative settlement Sisolak won against the Clark County airport and communications between him and his ex-girlfriend’s teenage daughter (those were brought up in allegations of impropriety that the ex-girlfriend has since recanted).

The letter also notes that Nevada’s anti-SLAPP laws contains “significant penalties” as a deterrent for filing frivolous suits, including attorneys’ fees, a $10,000 statutory penalty and compensatory and punitive damages.

The Laxalt team’s response comes nine days after FitzSimmons delivered her own blistering, 11-page letter to his campaign, threatening to sue if the Laxalt campaign didn’t retract statements made about her on the attack website.

“You have falsely and maliciously accused me in statements broadcast over television, the internet and news media, of criminal and egregious unprofessional conduct,” she wrote in her letter dated July 17.

Laxalt Lawyer Responds to Sisolak Lawyer Over Alleged Defamation by Michelle Rindels on Scribd

Jackie Valley contributed to this story.