Trump’s on the Warpath — Files Lawsuit Against CNN

Wait, CNN publishes unjust, slanderous material based on a false narrative and/or facts that don’t exist at all?

That never happens. Especially with CNN.

…even though I know that was all sarcasm, I still want to hurl.

ANYWAYS. President Trump’s campaign decided on Friday that they are suing CNN for stating the campaign “assessed the potential risks and benefits of again seeking Russia’s help in 2020 and has decided to leave that option on the table,” according to The Daily Wire.

The Trump campaign is seeking millions in damages from CNN and, with how the case settled with Nick Sandmann, I’d say the likelihood of winning is in Trump’s favor… much like most of his track record.

The false, defamatory statements that the Trump campaign is referring to are the publications suggesting that the campaign was seeking Russia’s help in the 2020 election, according to Fox News.

More from Fox News:

“The complaint alleges CNN was aware of the falsity at the time it published them but did so for the intentional purpose of hurting the campaign while misleading its own readers in the process…

the campaign filed this lawsuit against CNN and the preceding suits against The New York Times and The Washington Post to hold the publishers accountable for their reckless false reporting and also to establish the truth,” Senior Legal Adviser to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. Jenna Ellis told Fox News.

The complaint said that CNN was well aware the statements were false “because there was an extensive record of statements from the Campaign and the administration expressly disavowing any intention to seek Russian assistance” but promoted the claim anyway.

The complaint said that Trump’s legal team sent CNN a request to retract and apologize last month but CNN executives refused. The Trump campaign now seeks “millions of dollars” through litigation.

“The Campaign therefore was left with no alternative but to file this lawsuit to: publicly establish the truth, properly inform CNN’s readers and audience (and the rest of the world) of the true facts, and seek appropriate remedies for the harm caused by CNN’s false reporting and failure to retract and apologize for it,” the complaint said.

It’s interesting because the usual cop-out was that these “fake news” publications were opinion pieces. However, the First Amendment works in a beautiful way that, if what you say, such as presenting lies as facts, does in fact have a harmful effect (and no, just hurting your feelings isn’t enough), then you can certainly be sued for such.

Fox News shared:

The article referenced by the complaint was published on CNN.com on June 13, 2019.

Larry Noble’s CNN story, headlined “Soliciting dirt on your opponents from a foreign government is a crime. Mueller should have charged Trump campaign officials with it,” was labeled as an opinion piece and featured a disclaimer that Noble is a CNN contributor but the commentary is solely his own view. However, the piece states that Trump’s campaign “assessed the potential risks and benefits of again seeking Russia’s help in 2020 and has decided to leave that option on the table” as a fact and was still on CNN’s website as of Friday afternoon.

The complaint also references undercover video footage taken by controversial Project Veritas that showed Zucker instructing CNN staffers to focus on impeachment and employees complaining that the network is biased toward the president.

“CNN’s actions show willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression and that entire want of care which raises a presumption of conscious indifference to the consequences, and accordingly the Campaign is entitled to an award of punitive damages against CNN,” the complaint said.