With only two months left Donald Trump Back at the White House, the president-elect and convicted felon waged a legal battle, launching a series of lawsuits against media companies and publishers who had criticized him.
The lawsuits come amid growing fears about the consequences of a second Trump term for press freedom, as Trump escalates his long-standing hostility against the media – which he called “the enemy camp” in his victory speech last week.
Thursday, Columbia Journalism Review revealed that just days before the presidential election, Trump lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik published a letter to the New York Times and Penguin Random House demanding $10 billion in damages for articles critical of Trump.
The letter adds to a series of frivolous lawsuits against other media companies that Trump has accused of targeting him politically.
The letter, that CJR examinedaccused the articles’ authors Peter Baker, Michael S Schmidt, Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner of “false and defamatory statements” about Trump, adding that the New York Times is an “ironclad mouthpiece for the Democratic Party » which pays for “defamation on an industrial scale against political opponents”.
According to CJR, the letter referenced two specific stories from Buettner and Craig related to their latest book, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Wasted His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. The letter also gave a date of October 20 article by Baker titled “For Trump, a Life of Scandal Heads Toward a Moment of Reckoning,” along with an Oct. 22 article by Schmidt titled “As election nears, Kelly warns Trump would rule like a dictator” CJR reported.
Address the New York Timesthe letter accused the media outlet of having “every intention of defaming and disparaging the world-renowned Trump brand that consumers have long associated with excellence, luxury and success in entertainment, hospitality and real estate, among many other industries, as well as falsely and maliciously defaming and disparaging him as a candidate for the highest office in the United States.”
In response to the letter, the newspaper referred Paltzik to Random Penguin House regarding his accusations about Buettner and Craig’s book and said he stood by their reporting, a person familiar with the matter told CJR.
CJR further reports that on November 5, lawyers for Trump co-campaign chief Chris LaCivita published a letter to the Daily Beast, demanding that the outlet correct its reporting that LaCivita had raised $22 million to help Trump’s re-election.
In response to the letter, the Daily Beast added an editor’s note to his articles, stating: “Based on further review of FEC records, the correct total is $19.2 million.” The Beast regrets the mistake. The article has also been updated to clarify that the payments were to LaCivita’s LLC and not to LaCivita personally.
However, this rating was insufficient for the Trump campaign. A follow-up legal letter at the point of sale said the memo “does not address the overall message of the story – which depicts Mr. LaCivita as deceptively pocketing his campaign money for his own personal gain and that he was and is about to be ‘fired ‘because of this’.
“This entire narrative is completely false and the result of malicious and irresponsible reporting by the Daily Beast,” the letter added.
In addition to the New York Times, Penguin Random House and the Daily Beast, Trump and his campaign lawyers have continued CBS News, alleging in a lawsuit last month that its Oct. 7 interview with Kamala Harris on 60 Minutes was edited and therefore constituted “election interference.”
The 19-page brief claimed $10 billion in damages and accused CBS to move “up a gear to get Kamala elected”. He also accused the outlet of “partisan and unlawful acts of voter interference through malicious, misleading and substantial distortion of information.”
In response, CBS called the lawsuit “completely without merit,” denied that the interview had been edited, and promised to “vigorously defend” against the lawsuit.
Around the same time, Trump complained to the Federal Election Commission to the Washington Post, accusing it of making illegal in-kind contributions to Harris’ campaign. The Washington Post, which denied supporting a political candidate this year under billionaire owner Jeff Bezos — who later called Trump’s re-election an “extraordinary political comeback” — said the allegations were “inappropriate” and “baseless.”
In response to Trump’s re-election and his repeated attacks on journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called Trump’s threats against the press pose “a clear and direct danger to media freedom.”
“The hostile media climate fostered during Donald Trump’s first presidency – and expected to continue during his next term – poses great risks to media outlets inside and outside the country,” added the CPJ.
Echoing CPJ, Reporters Without Borders issued a similar statement following Trump’s victory: adage: “Attacking the press is actually an attack on American citizens’ right to information. The new Trump administration can and must change its narrative towards the media, take concrete steps to protect journalists and create a climate conducive to strong and pluralistic news media.”