London – Former President Donald Trump, after spending his entire term criticizing the media in his speeches and on social media, filed a defamation lawsuit against the American CNN channel in a Florida court on Monday (4). Hitler’s station.
He is seeking US$475 million (R$2.5 billion) in compensation.
In the 29-page lawsuit, lawyers allege that the network ran a “slander and smear campaign” against him and used its influence “to defeat him politically”.
Trump compared to Hitler
Trump has not officially confirmed whether he will run again for president in the next election, but he is acting as a candidate by holding meetings and rallies, as well as using his social network Truth Social to talk and stay on controversial issues. Get in touch with your followers.
“Maybe I have to do it again,” he said at a recent rally.
The reason the case is now moving may be the intensification of CNN’s “attacks” in recent months as a way to prevent CNN from running again for president in 2024.
“As part of their concerted effort to shift the political balance to the left, CNN tried to black it out. [a honra] The claimant is accused of increasingly scandalous, false and defamatory labels such as ‘racist’, ‘Russian lackey’, ‘rebel’ and, finally, ‘Hitler’.
Lawyers list several cases that suggest CNN is comparing Trump to Hitler; including the host Fareed Zakaria’s January 2022 special report featuring images of the German dictator.
Another quote cites former CNN media columnist Brian Stelter, one of Donald Trump’s harshest critics. Until last month, she ran an analytics program called Trusted Sources, when she was fired allegedly because the American network wanted to make room for opinion by focusing on journalism.
Lawyers highlighted an interview Stelter had with psychiatrist Allen Frances. “Trump is as destructive a person in this century as Hitler, Stalin and Mao were in the last century,” the interviewee told the anchor.
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The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Fort Lauderdale to complain about the alleged Hitler comparison, came as Trump faced criminal investigation by the Justice Department for retaining government documents on the Mar-a-Lago property after he left office in January 2018. 2021.
Last month, Trump and his three children were sued for “years of bank, tax and insurance fraud”.
And a congressional committee is investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters, focusing on the role of the former president.
While Trump has been banned from major digital platforms and created his own network, it didn’t start out as he expected – the owner has only 4 million followers versus the 80 million he has on Twitter – and is facing funding problems.
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In recent weeks, the former president has been criticized for holding a racist and violent post against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Taiwanese-American wife. Also for posts and conversations about the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Florida’s choice for the process may not be simply because Trump lives in the state run by conservative Ron de Santis, a former ally of the former president, although CNN is based in Atlanta.
Florida courts have passed controversial laws like Don’t Say Gay, which bans teachers from talking about LGBTQ+ issues in class, and laws that prevent social media from removing content from candidates for elective office.
However, a federal judge in the state has ruled that a lawsuit should be filed in which she tried to charge her 2016 election rival, Hillary Clinton, and dozens of others for allegedly conspiring against her with false allegations about her ties to Russia.
In the United States, the press is protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. Victories in media defamation lawsuits are not common. The claimant must prove that the journalists acted with “genuine malice or disregard for truth” in their reporting.
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source: Noticias
