The Trump campaign announced that they are suing The New York Times for libel over an opinion piece that discussed a Trump deal with Russia for election help.
The Trump campaign issued a statement on the lawsuit:
Today, Team Trump filed a libel lawsuit against the New York Times over a story falsely reporting as fact a conspiracy with Russia.
Statement from @JennaEllisEsq, Senior Legal Adviser to Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. below. pic.twitter.com/qqjgSjtsGt
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) February 26, 2020
Jenna Ellis, Senior Legal Adviser to the Trump campaign said, “Today the President’s re-election campaign filed suit against the New York Times for falsely stating the campaign had an ‘overarching deal’ with ‘Vladimir Putin’s oligarchy’ to ‘help the campaign against Hillary Clinton’ in exchange for ‘a new pro-Russian foreign policy, starting with relief from … economic sanctions.’ ”
Ellis continued, “The statements were and are 100 percent false and defamatory,” Ellis said. “The complaint alleges The Times 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 lawsuit in a series of cheap Trump stunts to attack the media and the credibility of the Russia scandal. In order for Trump to win the lawsuit, he will have to prove that The Times knew the statements were false at the time of publication. Being that the piece in question was a clearly labeled opinion piece and not presented as a news story, the odds of Trump winning anything are close to zero.
Trump’s lawsuit is an embarrassment. It is beneath the presidency and the behavior of a toddler who is throwing a tantrum over an opinion that he doesn’t like.
Just when one thinks that Trump can’t go any lower, he finds a new level of self-humiliation.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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