Trump's $475 million 'big lie' defamation lawsuit against CNN dismissed
By Joseph Ax July 29, 20233:43 PM CDT Updated 3 hours ago
July 29 (Reuters) - A federal judge has thrown out Donald Trump's $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN, in which the former president claimed the network's description of his election fraud as the "big lie" associated him with Adolf Hitler.
In a ruling late on Friday night, U.S. Judge Raag Singhal, who was nominated by Trump in 2019, said CNN's words were opinion, not fact, and therefore could not be the subject of a defamation claim.
"CNN's statements while repugnant, were not, as a matter of law, defamatory," wrote Singhal, who sits in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, near Trump's home at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
In a statement, a Trump spokesperson said: "We agree with the highly respected judge's findings that CNN's statements about President Trump are repugnant. CNN will be held responsible for their wrongful mistreatment of President Trump and his supporters."
The statement did not say whether Trump would appeal the decision.
The lawsuit, which was filed in October 2022, highlighted five instances in which CNN either published stories or aired comments referring to Trump's assertions about the 2020 election as his "big lie." The phrase is also associated with the Nazi regime's use of propaganda.
The wording, the lawsuit said, constituted "a deliberate effort by CNN to propagate to its audience an association between the plaintiff and one of the most repugnant figures in modern history."
But the mere use of the phrase "big lie" is not enough to give rise to a true connotation, Singhal wrote.
"No reasonable viewer could (or should) plausibly make that reference," he said.
Since launching his first presidential campaign in 2015, Trump has often attacked media outlets whose coverage he dislikes, with CNN a favorite target.
Trump is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, despite facing both state and federal indictments.
Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Sandra Maler and Deepa Babington
DeSantis' team manhandles 15-year-old boy who asked tough question: report
"U.S. Conservatives Are Threatening Global Free Speech "Especially the free speech panels." Argument An expert's point of view on a current event. Republican attacks on domestic media are undermining legal protections around the world."
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A New Hampshire teenager says he was manhandled by Ron DeSantis' security guards at a campaign event earlier this summer after he asked a question.
“Do you believe that Trump .. https://www.rawstory.com/trump-news/?utm_campaign=SmartLinks .. violated the peaceful transfer of power,” the teenager asked the GOP presidential candidate, “a key principle of American democracy that we must uphold?”
DeSantis tried to sidestep the question by saying Americans shouldn't remain stuck in the past before asking, almost incredulously, whether the teen was still in high school, and the exchange went viral.
But Mitchell told The Daily Beast that members of the governor's team grabbed and physically intimidated him at two later campaign stops, on the Fourth of July and on Aug. 19.
He said he was surrounded and physically restrained at a July 4 parade after briefly interacting with DeSantis, and the candidate's private security contractors briefly detained him, while an attendee at the latter event saw a staffer for DeSantis' super PAC Never Back Down take a photo of Mitchell on Snapchat, with the ominous caption, "Got our kid."
“I actually had a reporter come up and just say, ‘They’re pointing at you and they’re watching you,’” Mitchell said.
Casey DeSantis, the candidate's wife, spoke directly to Mitchell's mother at the parade but suggested the boy was lying about what took place.
“Well, I’m a mother, too,” Casey said, according to Mitchell and other witnesses. “I know what you’re experiencing, and we’re all very afraid for our children — even if they’re exaggerating.”
Seven other sources confirmed Mitchell's accounts by sharing communications with the family at the time of the events or by recalling what they had seen in person, and the teen said the governor's team had hurt the presidential hopefuls chances in the state by mistreating him.
: 'I was defamed': Trump blows his stack after Letitia James suggests he's not as rich as he claims' Iwas defamed': Trump blows his stack after Letitia James suggests he's not as rich as he claims https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trumps-wealth/
“Really stupid in a small state like New Hampshire," Mitchell said.
“The campaign, they could have called and said, ‘We’re so sorry, this should have never happened, we’ll get to the bottom of it,’” Mitchell added. “Never got a call like that. They never apologized to us for any of it.”
Watch the video below or at this link.
DeSantis Dodges High Schooler's Question About January 6
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