Former US President Donald Trump has sued US news broadcaster CNN for $475 million in damages for defamation. According to the lawsuit filed in a US district court in Florida on Monday, the TV broadcaster fears that he may run for president again in 2024 and therefore wants to wage a campaign of “defamation and slander” against him.
In another statement on Monday (local time), Trump announced that he and his lawyers may also sue “a large number of other fake news media companies” in the coming weeks and months – particularly regarding coverage of the 2020 US presidential election.
In the lawsuit against CNN, the former US President specifically objected to the broadcaster’s claim that the 2020 election was “stolen” by US Democrat Joe Biden as a “big lie”. Trump said his legal action was to “defend his reputation as a dedicated public servant and establish CNN’s liability for damaging his reputation with false, libelous and inflammatory misrepresentations about him.”
Because the TV station “tried to use its massive influence – allegedly as a ‘trustworthy’ news source – to defame the plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers in order to defeat him politically,” write Trump’s lawyers in the 29- side lawsuit.
In it, Trump also accused CNN of involvement in a “concerted action to tilt the political balance to the left.” Allegedly, the TV station tried to smear him with numerous “increasingly scandalous, false and defamatory terms such as ‘racist’, ‘Russian lackey’, ‘rioter’ and finally ‘Hitler'”.
Trump had previously threatened CNN with legal action if the broadcaster refused to withdraw the allegedly defamatory statements about him. However, according to the lawsuit, the broadcaster declined to withdraw its coverage.
During his tenure, Trump repeatedly railed against CNN and other media on social networks, which he described as “fake news”.
