Former United States President Donald Trump has sued television network CNN for defamation and according to The Guardian, he will be seeking damages worth $ 475 million. According to the Florida court filing, Trump accused CNN of using its influence to “defeat Trump politically”.
“Beyond simply highlighting any negative information about the plaintiff and ignoring all positive information about him, CNN has sought to use its massive influence, purportedly as a ‘trusted’ news source, to defame the plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically,” the court filing stated according to a report by the Washington Post.
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Trump’s lawyers said that CNN attempted to ruin his name “with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler’”.
Trump is already embroiled in controversy with the Department of Justice looking into the classified documents found by the FBI during the raid on Mar-a-Lago. The raid was conducted after witnesses claimed that the residence housed a number of secret documents from Trump’s tenure as president.
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During the raid, over 11,000 records were found with 100 marked classified, an affidavit claimed. However, the DOJ later decreased the number of classified ones to 53 in their sworn declaration.
Trump, however, denied all allegations and said that it was a ploy to attack him politically ahead of the mid-term elections. He also alleged that the FBI planted evidence at his Florida residence, but his lawyers did not include it officially in their arguments.
