Former President Donald Trump filed a defamation suit against CNN early Monday, alleging the news outlet has attempted to diminish his political reputation ahead of a potential 2024 presidential campaign by labeling him as “racist,” a “Russian lackey,” an “insurrectionist” and “Hitler,” seeking punitive damages of $475 million.
Photo Credit: Shutterstock
Trump and his representation say those labels are not used as hyperbole and reported by the news station as fact. Going further to say the comparison of Trump to Adolf Hitler, who he says is “arguably the most heinous figure in modern history,” is one of many examples of the network’s malicious conduct toward the former head of state, according to the complaint.
“CNN’s persistent use of ever-increasing defamatory characterizations of the plaintiff up to and including comparing him to Hitler and Nazism demonstrates that it published its defamatory statements about the plaintiff with actual malice,” the suit claims.
The suit seeks $475 million in punitive damages in addition to unspecified compensatory damages.
The complaint details CNN’s use of the term “The Big Lie” when referring to the belief by Trump and his followers that the 2020 presidential election was illegitimate. Trump claims that “The Big Lie” is a tactic derived from Hitler’s “Mein Kampf’ describing the phenomenon in which one person tells a big lie and keeps repeating it long enough, ultimately resulting in the masses believing it.
“The ‘Big Lie’ was used by Hitler to incite hatred of the Jews and to convince people to ostracize Jewish people,” the suit states. “It was an entire propaganda campaign to justify Jewish persecution and genocide. The phrase is not taken lightly and is not bandied about blithely. CNN anchors and commentators understand this. They have not used it against other political leaders and previously criticized political analogies to Nazi Germany and to Hitler.”
The complaint alleges that the phrase “Big Lie” was shown on air almost 7,700 times and explicitly lists the CNN anchors, pundits and “on-air personalities” who used it.
“CNN’s disparate treatment of public figures who support its narrative versus those who do not, such as the plaintiff, is a clear indicator of CNN’s malice — and evidence that the defendant is not reporting the news, but rather propagating its political views,” the suit said. “The plaintiff brings this action to vindicate his reputation as a dedicated public servant and to establish CNN’s liability for the harm it has caused to his reputation by the false, defamatory, and inflammatory mischaracterizations of him.”
Read more articles from Haute Lawyer, visit https://hauteliving.com/hautelawyer
Source: https://www.law360.com/articles/1536731
Attorney Talk
September 30, 2022Senen Garcia of SG Law Group is Uniquely Qualified to
