WASHINGTON | Former US President Donald Trump sued CNN on Monday, accusing it of defaming him over fears he might run for president again in 2024 and seeking $475 million in damages. .
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The Republican, who is flirting more and more openly with the idea of running for the White House, believes that CNN “sought to use its immense influence” to “defame him to his viewers and readers in order to defeat him politically”, according to the text of the complaint filed in Florida.
“CNN’s campaign of deterrence, in the form of defamation and slander against the plaintiff, has only escalated in recent months as CNN fears the plaintiff will run for president in 2024,” according to the same source.
Donald Trump accuses the channel of wanting to “tip the political balance to the left” by trying to “dirty” it with “a series of ever more defamatory, false and scandalous qualifiers such as “racist”, “lackey of the Russians”, “insurrectionist” and finally “Hitler”.
The businessman particularly criticizes CNN for using the expression “the Big Lie” to talk about his allegations that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him by Joe Biden.
“The ‘Big Lie’ is a direct reference to a tactic employed by Adolf Hitler and featured in my fight“, according to the complaint. “The ‘Big Lie’ was used by Hitler to incite hatred of Jews” and should not “be taken lightly.”
Its repeated use on the channel about Mr. Trump — more than 7,700 times since January 2021, the complaint alleges — is “a deliberate attempt by CNN to broadcast to its audience an association between the complainant and one of the most repugnant personalities in modern history”.
Donald Trump, 76, is seeking $475 million in damages.
In a press release, the ex-president said Monday evening that he was going to file a complaint against “a large number” of other media in the weeks and months to come, also for defamation.
He also said he could take action against the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by his supporters.
Throughout his tenure, the Republican ex-president had an abysmal relationship with mainstream media like CNN and The New York Times, which he calls “fake news” media (spreading fake news). He regularly raged against them on Twitter, from which he has since been banned.