Florida’s Rep. Brian Mast pulls ad after actor’s domestic battery conviction revealed || USA TODAY
By Ali Schmitz
STUART, Fla. – U.S. Rep. Brian Mast’s re-election campaign pulled a TV ad Wednesday immediately after the USA TODAY Network discovered the man it features was convicted of domestic battery in 2013, and is an actor who lives in Miami, not the congressional district.
John Cosomano was sentenced to three years’ probation, which was terminated about a year after his conviction on two felonies in Miami-Dade County: domestic battery by strangulation and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm.
In the ad titled “Shameful,” Cosomano claims to be a retired New York City firefighter and Mast’s campaign told the USA TODAY Network he retired a year before the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. The Network is still attempting to confirm he was a firefighter.
“Congressman Mast absolutely will not use this ad moving forward,” campaign spokesman Brad Stewart said. “Had we known, we absolutely would not have featured him in the ad.”
Cosomano, whose IMDB page claims he appeared on episodes of “Burn Notice” and “Sex and the City,” was not paid to appear in the ad, Stewart said.
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