Donald Trump has filed yet another lawsuit! This time, Trump is suing CNN for defamation, and has accused the network of carrying out a “campaign of libel and slander” against him by using its influence as a leading news organization to defeat him politically.
Why is Trump suing CNN?
According to the 29-page lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Monday, October 3rd, the 76-year-old former POTUS is seeking $475M in punitive damages as CNN’s coverage has caused him “embarrassment, pain, humiliation and mental anguish.” As per the lawsuit, he has accused the network of ignoring all “positive” information about him, and instead, “tilting” the political balance to the left in the lead-up to his possible 2024 presidential run.
Sky News host Paul Murray says Donald Trump is going to sue CNN and wants “hundreds of millions of dollars of compensation”.https://t.co/4hmL2y3wJQ
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) October 5, 2022
The lawsuit claims that the network has had a long history of criticizing the former president, but is now ramping up its attacks on him “as CNN fears the plaintiff will run for president in 2024,” which he has still yet to officially announce.
“Beyond simply highlighting any negative information about the plaintiff and ignoring all positive information about him, CNN has sought to use its massive influence, purportedly as a ‘trusted’ news source, to defame the plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically,” the lawsuit claims, before going on to reference some of the “defamatory” labels it has given Trump.
Donald Trump filed a $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN today. https://t.co/MAwMksNeum pic.twitter.com/5xQNqc52tZ
— The Canadian Independent (@canindependent) October 3, 2022
“As a part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance to the left, CNN has tried to taint the plaintiff with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist’, ‘Russian lackey’, ‘insurrectionist’, and ultimately ‘Hitler’,” the lawsuit claims.
“When a public official, or political candidate, is likened to Hitler, it is defamation per se as the statement imputes a characteristic or condition incompatible with the proper exercise of that public office,” the filing added. “CNN published these defamatory statements with actual malice in that they knew the association of the Plaintiff’s character with that of Hitler was false, defamatory, and inflammatory or they published the statements with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity.”
This isn’t the first time that Trump has gone after news outlets. Back in 2020, Trump's re-election campaign sued The New York Times and The Washington Post over op-ed pieces that suggested there was some kind of quid pro quo between Russian officials and Trump's 2016 campaign. His lawsuit against The Times was dismissed, while the lawsuit against The Post is pending.
Trump is currently facing a criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice for retaining government records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in January 2021, while a congressional committee is still investigating the January 6th riots on the US Capitol. Additionally, he, along with three of his adult children and the Trump Organization as a whole, is facing a separate lawsuit filed by New York State Attorney General Letitia James for years of alleged fraud, including violating state criminal laws, deceiving lenders and insurers, and fraudulently inflating assets.
