Trump sues for billions from media he says is biased against him

Source: The Guardian

Fri 15 Nov 2024 07.00 EST


With only two months left until Donald Trump returns to the White House, the president-elect and convicted felon has been waging lawfare by a flurry of lawsuits against media companies and publishers that have been critical of him. The lawsuits come amid growing fears of what a second Trump term would mean for press freedom as Trump intensifies his longstanding hostility against the media – which he called “the enemy camp” in his victory speech last week.

On Thursday, Columbia Journalism Review revealed that just days before the presidential election, Trump’s lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik issued a letter to the New York Times and Penguin Random House that demanded $10bn in damages over articles critical of Trump. The letter joins a series of frivolous lawsuits against other media companies that Trump has accused of politically targeting him.

The letter, which CJR reviewed, accused the articles’ authors Peter Baker, Michael S Schmidt, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner for “false and defamatory statements” about Trump, adding that the New York Times is a “a full-throated mouthpiece of the Democratic Party” that wages “industrial-scale libel against political opponents”.

ccording to CJR, the letter pointed to two specific stories by Buettner and Craig that relate to their latest book, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. The letter also pointed to a 20 October article by Baker titled “For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment,” as well as a 22 October article by Schmidt titled “As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator,” CJR reported.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/15/trump-sues-media-outlets-bias