Former President Donald Trump filed a $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN arguing the network has maligned him with “fake news” for the purposes of damaging his political future heading into 2024.
The complaint filed Oct. 3 stated, “CNN has sought to use its massive influence – purportedly as a ‘trusted’ news source – to defame the Plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically, culminating in CNN claiming credit for ‘[getting] Trump out’ in the 2020 presidential election.”
The lawsuit argues CNN employees and network guests have defamed Trump by repeated name-calling with the “ever-more scandalous, false and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler.’”
According to the complaint, the term “The Big Lie,” with connotations to Joseph Goebbels and Germany’s Nazi-era anti-Semitic and propaganda efforts, was uttered on the network more than 7,700 times since January 2021.
CNN executives have not responded to the lawsuit.
Donald J. Trump v. Cable News Network, Inc. complaint
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