sourceTrump sues CBS News over 60 Minutes interview with Harris; network says suit is "completely without merit"
October 31, 2024 / 8:54 PM EDT / CBS News
Former President Donald Trump has sued CBS News, alleging the network's "deceitful" editing of a recent 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris misled the public and unfairly disadvantaged him.
In a statement released Thursday, CBS News called the former president's claims "completely without merit" and said the network intended to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, which comes just days before the two candidates face off in the 2024 presidential election, centers on two clips of an October interview 60 Minutes conducted with Harris. One of the clips was edited to include a longer section of her response to a question about the conflict in the Middle East. Trump's lawsuit contends this editing decision was meant to intentionally assist his opponent and mislead the public, something CBS News has disputed.
"To paper over Kamala's 'word salad' weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news," the lawsuit claims. The suit says the former president seeks a jury trial and at least $10 billion in damages.
"Former President Trump's repeated claims against 60 Minutes are false," the network statement says. "The Interview was not doctored."
Trump's legal complaint was filed Thursday in federal court in the Northern District of Texas Amarillo division, a remote venue where the lone judge is a 2019 Trump appointee. Republican-led states and special interest groups have directed at least 14 politically sensitive cases to that court since January 2021, according to progressive watchdog group Accountable.US.
The lawsuit does not claim Trump was defamed by the network, said Geoffrey R. Stone, a First Amendment scholar and law professor at the University of Chicago, who reviewed the complaint. Instead, the suit attempts a novel use of a Texas statute that is meant to prevent advertisers from misleading the public about a product being sold — the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act.
Stone called it a "misapplication" of the law.
"That statute is about sales — a salesperson can be held liable for stating that a product has certain positive effects when he knows it doesn't," Stone said. "But CBS is not engaged in advertising here."
Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman, a constitutional law expert, said he was mystified by the Trump claims and called the case an "outrageous violation of First Amendment principles."
"This is a complaint so ill grounded that it comes close to being sanctionable as frivolous," Feldman said.
The former president has for weeks been voicing his displeasure about the interview on the campaign trail.
"Millions of Americans, including residents of Texas and this District, were confused and misled by the two doctored Interview versions," the suit alleges.
In an earlier statement released by 60 Minutes, the network explained the two clips were edited differently because one segment, which appeared on "Face the Nation," afforded more time to accommodate a longer section of Harris's answer.
"Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response," the Oct. 20 statement from 60 Minutes said. "When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment."
Trump had been invited to sit for his own interview on 60 Minutes but declined.
The former president has previously filed several lawsuits against media organizations, including a March defamation case against ABC News over a question asked by anchor George Stephanopoulos during an interview.
He has lost prior defamation lawsuits against CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Trump Wants 10 Billion Dollars
Trump Wants 10 Billion Dollars
Would an attorney with scruples file a case like this one?.....
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Re: Trump Wants 10 Billion Dollars
Trump and Alina Habba still owe about $1 million in sanctions and fees for filing the bullshit lolsuit Trump v. Clinton, claiming a "conspiracy" orchestrated by Hillary Clinton "in the hope of destroying his life, his political career, and rigging the 2016 Presidential Election." The judge's ruling on that motion for sanctions could be applied nearly word-for-word here as well:
This is not a lawsuit, but like his McDonald's cosplay and garbage-man dress-up, it's idiotic and ham-handed political theater intended to rile up the MAGA base. By filing in Amarillo he's guaranteed to get Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on the case, arguably the Trumpiest judge in the nation, so least likely to yeet the case straight into the sun let alone grant a motion for sanctions.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-di ... 81258.htmlThis case should never have been brought. Its inadequacy as a legal claim was evident from the start. No reasonable lawyer would have filed it. Intended for a political purpose, none of the counts of the amended complaint stated a cognizable legal claim.
Thirty-one individuals and entities were needlessly harmed in order to dishonestly advance a political narrative. A continuing pattern of misuse of the courts by Mr. Trump and his lawyers undermines the rule of law, portrays judges as partisans, and diverts resources from those who have suffered actual legal harm.
This is not a lawsuit, but like his McDonald's cosplay and garbage-man dress-up, it's idiotic and ham-handed political theater intended to rile up the MAGA base. By filing in Amarillo he's guaranteed to get Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on the case, arguably the Trumpiest judge in the nation, so least likely to yeet the case straight into the sun let alone grant a motion for sanctions.
GAH!
Re: Trump Wants 10 Billion Dollars
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.
Re: Trump Wants 10 Billion Dollars
The old way of embedding YouTube videos doesn't work the way it used to - this happens to me all the time for the last couple of years. Wish we had some tech support to help figure out the issue and maybe fix it.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
~ Carl Sagan
Re: Trump Wants 10 Billion Dollars
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.