MIAMI (Legal Newsline) – Famed lawyer Alan Dershowitz is suing CNN for defamation and is seeking $300 million.
The lawsuit, filed Sept. 15 in Florida federal court, takes issue with the coverage of Dershowitz’s representation of President Donald Trump on Jan. 27 during an impeachment trial.
“(P)laintiff delivered a brief response in which he said that the constitution does not support an impeachment of a president simply because a lawful action taken by a president might have been based in small part to or to some degree on a desire to be re-elected and if the president believes his re-election is in the public interest,” the suit says.
CNN cherry-picked parts of his answers when covering the trial, forgetting to include when Dershowitz said a president could be impeached and removed from office if what he did was “somehow illegal,” regardless of his desire to be re-elected, the suit says.
Instead, his answer was presented as if the president could perform illegal acts as long as he or she did so in order to be re-elected, the suit says.
“Following the airing of that clip over and over again, the hosts, together with their panel guests, including CNN employees and paid commentators, exploded into a one-sided and false narrative that Professor Dershowitz believes and argued that as long as the President believes his re-election is in the public interest, that he could do anything at all – including illegal acts – and be immune from impeachment,” the suit says.
Rodier & Rodier is representing Dershowitz.