Trump vs. CNN: Can President's Campaign Win Libel Suit On Russia Allegations?

The Trump campaign on Friday filed its third defamation suit against a major news outlet in little more than a week over handling of allegations involving President Trump 2016 election campaign and Russian election interference even though he has never won a single speech-related lawsuit in court.

The most recent suit involves CNN. Earlier, libel suits were filed against the New York Times and the Washington Post, challenging statements made in opinion columns.

Friday’s suit was announced by campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis.

“If journalists are more accurate in their statements and reporting, that would be a positive development, but not why these suits were filed,” Ellis said.

Whether the campaign can prevail in its suits is an open question. The Supreme Court has ruled public figures need to prove “actual malice.”

The special counsel Robert Mueller said he could not prove collusion between the campaign and Russia but his report cited instances where the campaign and Russian actors interacted and that the campaign concluded "the campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts."

The Media Law Resource Center notes Trump and his companies have filed some 4,000 lawsuits in the last three decades and sent numerous cease-and-desist letters to journalists and critics. None resulted in a court ruling in Trump’s favor.

Ellis said in a statement CNN was aware the statements in a piece written by Larry Noble, a former general counsel for the Federal Election Commission, were false at the time of publication but did so anyway “for the intentional purpose of hurting the campaign, while misleading its own readers in the process. Further, the campaign, through counsel, sent a written demand to CNN on Feb. 25, 2020, to retract and apologize for the false and defamatory statements.

"CNN refused, so the campaign was left with no alternative but to file suit to publicly establish the truth and seek appropriate remedies."

There was no immediate comment from CNN parent, WarnerMedia.

Like its predecessors, the suit claims the news outlet published statements that have been proved false.

The CNN suit involves a June piece by Noble that alleged the 2016 Trump 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." U.S. intelligence officials already have said the Kremlin is interfering in the current campaign.

"The campaign filed this lawsuit against CNN and the preceding suits against the New York Times and the Washington Post to hold the publishers accountable for their reckless false reporting and also to establish the truth: that the campaign did not have an agreement, quid pro quo, or collusion with Russia, as the Mueller Report concluded," Ellis said in her statement.

"The campaign was motivated by the fact that the publications recklessly published false statements which caused harm and intentionally mislead their readers."