Donald Trump on Monday sued CNN for defamation, seeking $475 million in punitive damages, claiming the news network had carried out a “campaign of libel and slander” against him.
In a 29-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Trump claimed that CNN had used its considerable influence as a leading news organization “to defeat him politically,” Reuters reports.
The defeated former president claims that CNN had a long track record of criticizing him but had ramped up its attacks in recent months because the network feared that he would run again for president in 2024.
“As a part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance to the left, CNN has tried to taint the Plaintiff with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler,'” the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit highlights a January 2022 special report by host Fareed Zakaria that included footage of the German dictator.
The 76-year-old former president said he would be filing lawsuits against other major media companies “in the coming weeks and months” for negative reporting on him. He also said that he could even take action against a congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
The lawsuit comes as Trump faces considerable legal woes, including a criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for retaining government records at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in January 2021.
