thewrap.com
04.10.2022 / 01:55
Trump Hits CNN With $475 Million Lawsuit Over ‘Defamatory Labels’ Like ‘Racist,’ ‘Russian Lackey’ and ‘Hitler’
as recently as 2020 over an opinion piece titled “Soliciting dirt on your opponents from a foreign government is a crime.” The disposition of multiple such cases, including filed against the New York Times and New York Post in recent years, could not be immediately determined.First Amendment scholars who have spoken to TheWrap said that defamation suits like these are not likely to succeed.The lawsuit takes special issue with alleged comparisons to Hitler, saying it demonstrates “actual malice,” a key component of any defamation action:“Most notably, and, the subject of this complaint, is CNN’s persistent association of the Plaintiff to Adolf Hitler and Nazism. When labels like ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ and ‘insurrectionist’ did not have the desired effect to undermine the Plaintiff’s candidacy when running for President or the Plaintiff’s accomplishments as President, CNN upped the stakes to conjure associations between the Plaintiff and arguably the most heinous figure in modern history.”More to come …Loree Seitz contributed to this report.