Former President Donald Trump is suing CNN for defamation and asking for compensatory damages in extra of $75,000 and punitive damages of $475 million, in keeping with a lawsuit filed Monday.
He's claiming that the cable information large has harmed his repute with "false, defamatory, and inflammatory mischaracterizations of him" and that CNN's conduct "is meant to intrude with [his] political profession."
Particularly, Trump argues that he is entitled to tons of of tens of millions of dollars in punitive damages due to CNN's use of the time period the "Huge Lie" to explain Trump's "acknowledged considerations in regards to the integrity of the election course of for the 2020 presidential election." Trump's legal professionals say that the "Huge Lie" "is a direct reference to a tactic employed by Adolf Hitler and showing in Hitler's "Mein Kampf."
"'In the event you inform a lie sufficiently big and hold repeating it, individuals will ultimately come to consider it,'" Trump's legal professionals acknowledged, noting it was utilized by Hitler to generate hatred in opposition to Jews and to justify their genocide.
The lawsuit says, "CNN's marketing campaign of dissuasion within the type of libel and slander in opposition to the [Trump] has solely escalated in current months as CNN fears [he] will run for president in 2024."
The previous president has been claiming since November 2020 that the election was rigged, regardless of dozens of lawsuits and recounts that discovered it was not. He's being investigated by Congress and the federal government for making an attempt to overturn the election outcomes, and two years later, he nonetheless claims that he received the 2020 election.
CNN has not but responded to a request for remark.
The case has been assigned to Trump-appointed Decide Raaj Singhal, within the Southern District of Florida.