ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) – CNN has asked a federal judge to throw out a defamation lawsuit filed against it by the campaign for President Donald Trump, claiming it is attempting to silence a “free and open public dialogue” about him.
CNN filed its motion June 5 in a lawsuit stemming from coverage by the network that is critical of President Trump.
“If ever the First Amendment and this nation’s strong, vital protections for free speech required prompt dismissal of a lawsuit, they do so here,” the motion says.
Donald Trump for President, Inc., filed its lawsuit on March 6 against CNN, alleging it published false statements claiming the President and the campaign were gaining electoral influence though ties with Russia.
Trump’s campaign alleges that on June 13, 2019, an article written by Larry Noble that was published on CNN.com knowingly and falsely claimed the campaign possessed information for political gain through “seeking Russia’s help in 2020.”
The lawsuit alleges the article's content is known to be false to CNN, and that the network knows the Trump campaign has rejected any claims of gaining assistance from any foreign country in multiple statements made by him and by former Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.
The campaign company also alleges that Jeff Zucker, CNN’s CEO, has a personal vendetta against the President and has created biased news coverage of the President through his news company.
In response, CNN said the article in question is an opinion piece and not subject to defamation claims.
“The Complaint attacks an isolated statement from the Op-Ed that the Campaign ‘assessed the potential risks and benefits of again seeking Russia’s help in 2020 and has decided to leave that option on the table,’” CNN’s lawyers wrote.
“The statement is based on revealed, widely known and unchallenged facts, most notably President Trump’s then-recent interview with ABC News in which he stated he would accept information from foreign entities in the 2020 presidential election: ‘It’s not an interference. They have information. I think I’d take it.’”
The Trump campaign called CNN’s motion “empty rhetoric” and said the statement that the campaign would consider foreign help is completely false.
“Despite CNN’s attempts to dress this up as a matter of ‘opinion,’ this is a factual issue, not one of opinion,” a June 19 response from the campaign says.
“Either the Campaign did, or did not, weigh the costs and benefits of seeking Russian assistance in the election and decide to leave the option ‘on the table.’
“Any reasonable reader would construe this as a factual claim, not a matter of opinion, despite CNN’s attempt to label the piece as a whole as an ‘opinion.’”