President Donald Trump kisses the American flag after speaking at Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2020, at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md., Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
On Friday, he struck again.
Just this Tuesday, I wrote that Donald Trump’s campaign was suing The Washington Post for libel (here).
That action concerns two articles related to Russian interference in the 2016 election: “Trump Just Invited Another Russian Attack. Mitch McConnell is Making One more Likely” and “Trump: I Can Win Reelection with Just My Base.”
Well, now POTUS is legally lashing CNN.
At issue: an allegation on the network’s website that the Commander-in-Chief’s campaign had “assessed the potential risks and benefits of again seeking Russia’s help in 2020 and has decided to leave that option on the table.”
That claim was made in the June 13th, 2019 opinion piece, “Soliciting Dirt on your Opponents From a Foreign Government is a Crime. Mueller Should Have Charged Trump Campaign Officials With It” by Larry Noble.
Campaign Senior Legal Advisor Jenna Ellis explained to Fox News:
“The complaint alleges CNN was aware of the falsity at the time it published them but did so for the intentional purpose of hurting the campaign while misleading its own readers in the process … the campaign filed this lawsuit against CNN and the preceding suits against The New York Times and The Washington Post to hold the publishers accountable for their reckless false reporting and also to establish the truth.”
Here’s more from the filing itself:
The Campaign, through counsel, sent a written demand to CNN on February 25, 2020, to retract and apologize for the…false and defamatory statements. CNN refused. The Campaign therefore was left with no alternative but to file this lawsuit to: publicly establish the truth, properly inform CNN’s readers and audience (and the rest of the world) of the true facts, and seek appropriate remedies for the harm caused by CNN’s false reporting and failure and retract and apologize for it.
I’m guessing those “appropriate remedies” are gonna be big.
The suit points to a longstanding anti-Trump bent to CNN — it’s been overt malice:
CNN has engaged in a systematic pattern of bias against the Campaign, designed to maliciously interfere with and damage its reputation and ultimately cause the organization to fail.
The submission goes on to lay out why the piece was full of it, with examples such as the following 2018 remarks by then-Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders:
“Since the beginning of his administration, President Trump has implemented a whole-of-government approach to safeguard our nations’ elections. The President has made it clear that his administration will not tolerate foreign interference in our elections from any nation-state or other dangerous actor.”
Bottom line, as per the suit:
The Defamatory Article is false. In fact, the Campaign has repeatedly and openly disclaimed any intention to see Russian involvement. … There have been no public statements made by the Campaign with respect to the 2020 election that can be reasonably interpreted as “seeking Russia’s help” or “leav[ing] that option on the table.”
So how much in damages are they eyeing? Well, just as in the case against the Post, it’s this:
The Campaign was damaged in an amount to be proven at trial, in the millions of dollars.
The Post and CNN aren’t the only companies getting called out; as covered by RedState’s Stu Cvrk, last month, the Trump Campaign launched litigation toward The New York Times
Personally, I’m surprised there haven’t been more. The bias against the President by the mainstream news outlets is stunningly undisguised — certainly enough to have offered many, points of contention that could be hashed out in a court of law.
With these, he’s certainly picking primary targets; but my guess is we’ve not seen the last of it.
What do you think — will any such suits affect the MSM’s coverage as we grow nearer to November? Let us all know in the Comments section.
-ALEX
See 3 more pieces from me:
What is This? CNN Refers to Bernie Sanders as Thanos
History is Made: The First Man Tries Out for the Women’s Olympics, and the Results May Stun You
Find all my RedState work here.
And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter and Facebook.
Thank you for reading! Please sound off in the Comments section below.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member