The $475 million defamation lawsuit brought by Donald Trump against CNN, wherein he contended that the news organization referred to his assertion of the 2020 election being stolen as the ‘Big Lie,’ has been dismissed by a federal judge.
Trump’s lawsuit, filed in a US District Court in Florida in October, contended that CNN’s use of the phrase linked the former US president to tactics reminiscent of Adolf Hitler.
The lawsuit was dismissed on Friday by US District Court Judge Raag Singhal, who was appointed by Trump and is considered the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
‘There is no question that the statements made by CNN meet the publication requirement for defamation under Florida law,’ Singhal said in his ruling.
‘The next question is whether the statements were false statements of fact,’ the judge said. ‘This is where Trump’s defamation claims fail.’
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‘The complained of statements are opinion, not factually false statements, and therefore are not actionable,’ Singhal said. ‘CNN’s statements, while repugnant, were not, as a matter of law, defamatory.’
‘The case will, therefore, be dismissed.’
In his defamation complaint, Trump said the network’s use of the phrase the ‘Big Lie’ was 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.’
Trump’s tenure in the White House was characterised by a contentious relationship with CNN and other major news outlets such as The New York Times, as he frequently referred to them as ‘fake news’ and vented his anger against them on various social media platforms.
Trump, who faced impeachment twice and consistently makes the unfounded claim of winning the 2020 presidential election against Democrat Joe Biden, is set to go on trial in Florida in May, accused of mishandling top-secret government documents.
Moreover, Trump is contending with a lot of felony charges linked to hush money payments made to a porn star in New York, and he is bracing for potential indictment as he faces separate state and federal investigations into his actions aimed at overturning the 2020 election.
The dismissal of the defamation lawsuit against CNN is one of the significant legal developments in the ongoing scrutiny surrounding the former president’s actions and public statements.