On Monday, former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit against CNN, claiming that the network had defamed him in an attempt to stymie any future political campaigns. Trump is demanding a total of $475 million in damages from the network.
The case, which was submitted to the United States District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, focuses particularly on the phrase “The Big Lie” in reference to President Trump’s bogus accusations of massive fraud, which the president believes lost him the presidential election in 2020 to Joe Biden.
As president, Trump made several attacks on CNN, which were well received by his loyal conservative supporters. In a similar manner, he has initiated cases against major technology corporations, but they have not been successful. In the beginning of this year, a court in California dismissed his claim that Twitter wrongfully removed him from its platform as a result of the uprising that occurred in the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
There is no proof of the election fraud that Trump claims occurred, according to several federal and local election authorities from both parties, a lengthy number of courts, senior former campaign aides, and even Trump’s own attorney general. All of these entities have made this assertion.
In his complaint, Donald Trump alleges that since January 2021, CNN has referred to him in connection with more than 7,700 instances of the term “The Big Lie,” which has implications of Nazism.
Monday morning, President Trump issued a statement in which he seemed to imply that similar lawsuits will be launched against other news companies. In addition, he said that he may take “necessary measures” against the House committee that is investigating the assault on the Capitol on January 6 that was carried out by his supporters. The lawsuit was filed at the same time that he was considering whether or not to run for president in 2024.
According to multiple published accounts, the new CEO of CNN, Chris Licht, at a meeting held more than three months ago asked his journalistic workers to avoid from using the word because it is too similar to Democratic efforts to brand the previous president.
