ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) – President Donald Trump’s campaign is going to have to make a stronger argument if it wants to sustain its libel lawsuit against CNN.
Atlanta federal judge Michael Brown on Nov. 12 dismissed Donald J. Trump for President’s libel lawsuit that alleges CNN published false statements claiming Trump and his campaign were gaining electoral influence in through 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.”
CNN said the lawsuit was an attempt to silence a “free and open public dialogue” about him and that the article in question was an opinion piece protected by the First Amendment.
Judge Brown found that the statement at issue, while made in an op-ed, was presented as a statement of fact. However, CNN did not publish the statement with actual malice – a standard for this type of lawsuit – Brown found.
“Most of the allegations in the complaint regarding actual malice are conclusory,” Brown wrote. “Plaintiff, for example, alleges in a purely conclusory manner that Defendants ‘clearly had a malicious motive’ and ‘knowingly disregarded all… information when it published the defamatory article.’
“Allegations such as these amount to little more than ‘threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements,’ which are insufficient to support a cause of action.”
The Trump campaign had pointed to a tweet from the author’s article, Larry Noble, to show his disdain for the President. The tweet said: “Trump cheats and lies, and when caught, lies again and claims the right to make the rules. He claims defeats as victories, takes credit for anyone’s success and blames his failures on others…”
This tweet wasn’t enough to prove actual malice in the constitutional sense, Brown said. But he will let the Trump campaign amend his complaint to make further arguments that the statement was made with actual malice.