Donald Trump sues CNN for defamation, claims $475 million

Washington | Former US President Donald Trump sued CNN on Monday, accusing it of defaming him over concerns he could run for president again in 2024 and seeking $475 million in damages.

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The Republican, who is more frankly flirting with the idea of ​​running for the White House, believes CNN “sought to use its enormous influence” to “discredit him with his viewers and readers in order to defeat him politically,” according to the text of the complaint filed in Florida.

According to the same source, “CNN’s deterrence campaign, in the form of defamation and defamation against the plaintiff, has only escalated in recent months as CNN fears that the plaintiff will run for president in 2024.”

Donald Trump accuses the channel of wanting to “tip the political balance to the left” by trying to “dirty”” with a series of defamatory, false and scandalous adjectives such as “racist” and “servant of the Russians”, “disobedience” and finally “Hitler”.

The businessman is particularly critical of CNN for using the term “The Big Lie” to talk about his allegations that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” by Joe Biden.

“The Big Lie” is a direct reference to the tactic used by Adolf Hitler and featured in my struggleAccording to the complaint. Hitler used the “big lie” to incite hatred of Jews “and should not be taken lightly.”

Its repeated use on the channel about Mr. Trump — more than 7,700 times since January 2021, the complaint alleges — is “a deliberate attempt by CNN to infuse its audience with an association between the complainant and one of the most repugnant figures in modern history.”

Donald Trump, 76, is seeking $475 million in damages.

In a press release, the former president said, on Monday evening, that he would file a complaint against a “large number” of other media outlets in the coming weeks and months, also for defamation.

He also said he might take action against the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol by his supporters.

Throughout his tenure, the former Republican president had a poor relationship with major media outlets such as CNN and tea The New York TimesWhat the media call “fake news” (dissemination of false news). He was regularly criticizing them on Twitter, which he has since been banned from participating in.