Trump sues CNN for $475 million in defamation
The former president says the network had defamed him in an effort to short-circuit any future political campaign.
Former President Donald Trump on Monday sued CNN, seeking $475 million in damages, saying the network had defamed him in an effort to short-circuit any future political campaign.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, focuses on Trump’s bogus accusations of widespread fraud, which he alleges cost him the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden.
CNN provided no quick response.
Trump constantly attacked CNN as president, which was popular among his conservative supporters. He has filed similar claims against major tech giants, with little success. A California judge earlier this year dismissed his case against Twitter for removing him from the network during the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol insurgency.
Numerous federal and local election officials from both parties, as well as a long number of courts, top former campaign staffers, and even Trump’s own attorney general, have all stated that there was no collusion in the election fraud he alleges.
Trump’s lawsuit claims “The Big Lie,” a phrase with Nazi connotations, has been used in reference to him more than 7,700 times on CNN since January 2021.
“It is intended to aggravate, scare and trigger people,” he said.
Trump intimated in a statement on Monday that similar lawsuits might be launched against other news companies. He also stated that he may take “necessary action” against the House committee probing his supporters’ Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The case comes as he considers running for president in 2024.
According to multiple published accounts, new CNN CEO Chris Licht privately asked his news employees to stop using the phrase in a meeting more than three months ago because it is too close to Democratic efforts to brand the previous president.