In his lawsuit against CNN, Trump claims $475 million in damages. Former President Donald Trump wants CNN to pay a high price for spreading “fake news.” Trump launched a lawsuit against the network for its coverage of him on Monday, alleging that it is actively working against his prospective 2024 candidacy.
Trump is demanding more than $75,000 in compensation damages, $475 million in punitive penalties, and court fees. According to the lawsuit, Trump also seeks a jury trial in the civil claim.
According to the complaint, CNN has gone out of its way to vilify Trump to hurt him. It has been well documented that President Donald J. Trump has long been a critic of Cable News Network, Inc. (‘CNN’) – not because CNN fails to report the news, but because CNN strives to manufacture the news, according to the lawsuit.
CNN has attempted to defame the Plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers to defeat him politically. CNN has gone beyond simply highlighting negative information about him and ignoring all positive information about him. According to the lawsuit, CNN has claimed credit for ‘[getting] Trump out’ in the 2020 presidential election.
CNN’s campaign of dissuasion against the Plaintiff in the form of libel and slander has only grown in recent months as CNN thinks the plaintiff may run for president in 2024, according to the lawsuit.
The complaint claimed that CNN’s coverage of him was part of its intentional effort to tilt the political balance to the left and that using “scandalous, false, and defamatory labels” demonstrated “reckless disregard for the truth.”
PolitiFact has awarded CNN the dreaded ‘Pants on Fire!’ label for stories equating Trump to Hitler. However, it persists, necessitating the time and expense of initiating the instant case, according to the complaint.
CNN has launched a smear campaign against the Plaintiff, presenting comments that compared him to a cult leader, a Russian puppet, a “dog whistler” to “white supremacists and a racist.” The lawsuit stated that it is the stuff of tabloids masquerading as ‘honored’ news, providing examples of each term’s use.
According to the lawsuit, CNN consistently uses ever-increasing defamatory characterizations of the Plaintiff. They have equated him to Hitler and accused him of promoting Nazism, proving that it published its defamatory claims about the Plaintiff with genuine malice.
The lawsuit, which cites several CNN pieces over the years, specifically mentions a Jan. 9 article in which Trump was compared to Hitler, as well as ongoing coverage that makes the comparison explicitly or indirectly through the usage of the phrase “Big Lie,” which is associated with Hitler.
The complaint claimed that CNN’s extremely defamatory and continuous linkage of the Plaintiff with Hitler and Hitler’s ‘Big Lie’ is no mistaken misuse.
It is willful and “malicious reporting” meant to feed a narrative and achieve the desired end: to drive readers and viewers to connect the Plaintiff with the lowest of the low, to fear him, not vote for him, and support campaigns against him, according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Trump’s treatment is a clear sign of CNN’s malice and is evidence that the Defendant is not reporting the news but disseminating its political opinions.
In July, Trump demanded that CNN remove information he said was disparaging. The letter disputed CNN’s suggestion that Trump lied about the 2020 election results.
President Trump’s words are not lies: He subjectively believes that the results of the 2020 presidential election turned on by fraudulent voting activities in many important states, according to the letter.
President Trump has the subjective conviction that he was wrongfully denied a second term in office. According to the letter, this is especially true in light of an incumbent president getting over “74 million votes,” a record figure for any Republican candidate in history.
By refusing to admit President Trump may believe he is telling the truth or that he could legitimately feel his claim is correct, CNN has acted wilfully and recklessly, disregarding the truth. CNN’s constant and determined endeavor to call President Trump a ‘lie’ and purveyor of the ‘Big Lie’ is defamatory, according to the demand letter.
According to The Hill, when Trump launched his lawsuit against CNN this summer, he would also be initiating lawsuits against other media outlets that have defamed him and misled the public about the fraud during the 2020 Election.