Donald Trump's campaign team sued Wednesday February 26 for libel New york times for a column published in March 2019, which evoked an agreement between the republican candidate and the Russian president, Vladimir Poutine, to support the election of the businessman in 2016.
This is the first time that Donald Trump or his campaign team has slandered the press group, which the president and ex-magnate of New York real estate has regularly criticized since the start of his first presidential campaign in 2015.
"Donald J. Trump for President" claims damages "In the millions" dollars, according to the document filed Wednesday with the New York State Supreme Court.
The allegedly defamatory statements were taken from a column by Max Frankel, the newspaper's former executive director between 1986 and 1994. "There was no need for specific electoral collusion between the Trump campaign team and Vladimir Putin because they had a comprehensive deal: help defeat Hillary Clinton in exchange for a new Prorussian policy", he wrote in his post published on March 27, 2019.
The press, "the enemy of the people"
"When he published these words, the Times knew very well that they weren't real "wrote the Donald Trump campaign team in a document signed by his lawyer, Charles Harder, without specifying that the text had appeared in the "Opinion" section of the newspaper. " But the Times still published them, knowing that they were false and that they would deceive its own readers ", continues the organization.
The decision was made, according to the latter, "Due to the extreme orientation of the Times and his animosity against the campaign team (Trump) ", but also for "Improperly influence the presidential election of November 2020".
"The Trump team has turned to justice to punish an editorial writer for having an opinion that they consider unacceptable", responded a spokesperson for the New york times in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Fortunately", she continued, "The law protects the right of Americans to express judgments and conclusions, especially when it comes to events of public significance".
"Trump called the press "the enemy of the people" ", Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders said in a statement. "And today, drawing inspiration from his dictator friends around the world, he is trying to reconsider press freedom (…) by attacking the New york times (…) Enough ".
