President Donald Trump threatened legal action against The New York Times, calling the newspaper’s citation of legal experts’ opinion of his lawsuit against CBS “likely unlawful.”
The Times reported Tuesday evening that legal representatives for Trump and Paramount are set to begin mediation on Wednesday over Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit alleging “60 Minutes” deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris before the election. (CBS said they simply aired different portions of the same answer.)
The paper reported that Paramount is “eager” to make a deal amid an impending merger with Skydance Media that needs approval from the Trump administration, even though “legal experts have called the suit baseless and an easy victory for CBS.”
That last line drew Trump’s fury in a Wednesday morning Truth Social post. The Times’ “interjection,” the president wrote, potentially “makes them liable for tortious interference, including in Elections, which we are intently studying.”
He added that the newspaper should “be on the hook for their likely unlawful behavior.”
In a statement, a New York Times spokesperson wrote that the paper “will not be deterred by the administration’s intimidation tactics. We will continue to pursue the facts without fear or favor and stand up for journalists’ First Amendment right to ask questions on behalf of the American people.”
The spokesperson also noted that Trump’s post “follows a long list of legal threats aimed at discouraging or penalizing independent reporting about the administration. The law is clear and protects a strong free press and favors an informed American public.”
In addition to his ongoing lawsuit against CBS, the president has sued several other news outlets as part of a campaign to attack major media organizations. Trump sued The Des Moines Registerand top pollster J. Ann Selzer last December over a pre-election survey that showed Harris leading Trump in Iowa, a state he ultimately won by double digits. Trump claimed the inaccurate poll violated consumer fraud protections; the Register is currently fighting the lawsuit in court.
He also sued ABC News last year, alleging that star anchor George Stephanopoulos defamed him by repeatedly stating a jury found Trump had “raped” E. Jean Carroll after a jury found him civilly liable for “sexual abuse.” The network ultimately settled that lawsuit, paying $15 million to Trump’s “presidential foundation and museum.”
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