Former US president Donald Trump has dragged CNN to court accusing the cable television news network of defamation and seeking $475 million in punitive damages.
The lawsuit filed which was filled in a US District Court in Florida, accused CNN of waging a campaign of ‘libel and slander’ against him because it ‘fears’ he will run for president again in 2024.
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‘CNN has sought to use its massive influence — purportedly as a ‘trusted’ news source — to defame the plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically,’ Trump’s lawyers said in the 29-page complaint.
‘As a part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance to the Left, CNN has tried to taint the plaintiff with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler,’ the complaint said.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that Trump, who requested a jury trial, had a caustic relationship with CNN and other major news outlets like The New York Times during his presidency, branding them ‘fake news’ and repeatedly raging against them on social media.
The former President of the United States, Donald Trump, and some of his family members had reportedly lied to tax collectors, lenders and insurers for years in a scheme which had also routinely misstated the value of most of his properties in order to enrich themselves, according to a suit which had been filed by New York’s attorney general on Wednesday.
Top state prosecutor Letitia James had also revealed that with the help of his children and others at the Trump Organization, the former president provided fraudulent statements of his net worth and false asset valuations ‘to obtain and satisfy loans, get insurance benefits, and pay lower taxes.’
‘In short, he lied to gain massive financial benefits for himself.’
The sweeping investigation has been revealed to also be one of te many criminal, civil and congressional probes into Trump, who is also eyeing another run for the White House in 2024.