Former President Donald Trump is suing CNN for defamation and is seeking up to $475 million in damages.
In his complaint filed at the U.S. District Court in Florida, President Trump and his legal team are claiming that CNN has tried to taint the President using defamatory language as part of a “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 complaint reads.
The complaint further alleges that the network has used language like “Trump’s big lie” referring to the allegations made by the former president and many other patriots across the country of multiple shenanigans during the 2020 presidential election. The complaint alleges that CNN “with reckless disregard for their truth or falsity, thereby acting with actual malice,”
“President Donald J. Trump, has been a long-time critic of the defendant, Cable News Network, Inc. (‘CNN’) — not because CNN does a bad job of reporting the news, but because CNN seeks to create the news,” the lawsuit reads.
“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, culminating in CNN claiming credit for ‘[getting] Trump out’ in the 2020 presidential election,” the lawsuit adds.
“CNN’s campaign of dissuasion in the form of libel and slander against the plaintiff has only escalated in recent months as CNN fears the plaintiff will run for president in 2024,” the lawsuit further alleges.
The lawsuit also points out that CNN has been given the dreaded “Pants on Fire!” reward for comparing the former president to Adolf Hitler.
“CNN has undertaken a smear campaign to malign the plaintiff with a barrage of negative associations and innuendos, broadcasting commentary that he is like a cult leader, a Russian lackey, a dog whistler to white supremacists and a racist. It is the stuff of tabloids cloaked as ‘honored’ news,” the complaint reads citing individual reporting of each instance.
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