Former President Donald Trump has continued with his threat to sue CNN for slander.
The lawsuit Filed in a US court in Florida on Monday, the TV network has “tried to use its massive influence — ostensibly as a “trusted” news source — to defame the accuser in the minds of its viewers and readers with the aim of him politically, culminating in CNN taking credit for “(getting) Trump” in the 2020 presidential election.”
Trump demands $475 million in punitive damages.
The 45th president in July had threatened to sue CNN because he called him a “liar” and his false claims about the 2020 presidential election “lies.”
Trump’s attorneys state in the lawsuit that CNN has “undertaken a smear campaign to defame the plaintiff with a barrage of negative associations and innuendo, broadcasting comments that he is like a cult leader, a Russian lackey, a dog whistler.” for white supremacists, and a racist’.
The indictment states that CNN — by citing the ex-president’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him as “Trump’s big lie” — shows “reckless disregard for their truth or falsehood.” Such language acts with “real malice,” Trump’s lawyers argue.
CNN did not immediately comment on the suit.
In the US, defamation cases are hard for plaintiffs to win. Officials and figures must prove that media outlets with First Amendment protections acted with genuine malice and with reckless disregard for the truth.
Trump announced in late July that he had notified CNN of his intention to sue the news organization “for their repeated defamatory statements against me.”
“I will also take action against other media outlets that have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud during the 2020 election,” Trump said at the time via his Save America PAC.
The letter earlier this summer cited dozens of instances where CNN called Trump’s election claims “lies,” “founded theories” and “false stories.”
CNN’s new president, Chris Licht, had apparently told anchors earlier this year to curtail Trump’s election claims as “the big lie,” among other things. He called on employees to focus on journalism rather than speculation.
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