Lawsuit filed by Trump against The New York Times deemed baseless by First Amendment specialists
In a recent development, former US President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, marking his latest legal battle with a major news outlet. This lawsuit follows hot on the heels of Trump's pending complaint against the Wall Street Journal.
The lawsuit, according to several lawyers and First Amendment scholars, is deemed meritless. Jonathan Peters, a media law professor, points out that the burden is on Trump and his legal team to prove 'actual malice,' meaning that the paper published false statements of fact with knowledge of their falsity or with reckless disregard for their truth.
The legal costs of the lawsuit could total millions of dollars, though it's highly unlikely that the bill would surpass the $16 million that Disney and Paramount each agreed to pay to settle suits lodged by Trump. Disney, the parent of ABC News, and Paramount, the parent of CBS News, came under widespread criticism for settling rather than defending against Trump's charges in court.
The Times, unlike Disney and Paramount, does not have competing business interests in the form of news outlets. The Times and Penguin Random House, the book publisher also named in the suit, both said the lawsuit lacks merit and vowed not to be swayed by presidential pressure.
RonNell Andersen Jones, a First Amendment scholar, suggests that while the new lawsuit contains a long list of grievances, the vast majority of these issues likely aren't actionable in court. The reporting at issue falls squarely within protections and other privileges, making the suit unlikely to survive the early stages of litigation, according to Peters.
Several journalism advocacy groups, including PEN America, have concluded that the lawsuit against The New York Times is part of Trump's dangerous pattern of seeking to punish any publisher that questions his narrative. Rebecca Tushnet, the Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard Law School, describes the lawsuit as a statement of contempt for truth, the American public, the judicial process, and everything that deserves respect in the American tradition.
Clayton Weimers, the executive director of Reporters Without Borders' branch in the US, stated that President Trump's lawsuit against The New York Times is not surprising, given his past settlements with Disney and Paramount. The primary goals of the lawsuit, according to Jones, are to have a legal filing that acts as a manifesto against the press, to lodge an action that will be staggeringly expensive to defend, and to hope the suit will once again provide leverage against a powerful source of critical investigative reporting.
As the legal proceedings unfold, Trump has expressed positive feedback on his lawsuit against The New York Times. Toward the end of the day, Trump posted on Truth Social, expressing his feelings about the lawsuit, 'IT'S ABOUT TIME!'. The lawsuit against The New York Times is referred to as 'weaponized litigation' by PEN America.
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