Trump campaign sues Washington Post for defamation

President TrumpDonald John TrumpSanders to organize big Super Tuesday 5 things to watch for Super Tuesday Congress struggles to finalize funding for coronaviruses and PLUS surveillance agreementsThe Washington campaign has filed a multi-million dollar libel lawsuit against the Washington Post, claiming that the newspaper had knowingly published false claims that Trump was in on a plot with Russia over the US presidential election. .

The lawsuit, filed Monday in a federal court in Washington, D.C., comes a week after the Trump campaign filed a similar lawsuit against the New York Times.

The trial cites two opinion pieces from the Washington Post of June 2019, one which said that the special advocate of the time Robert MuellerRobert (Bob) Toobin Swan MuellerCNN warns McCabe is in a “ perilous state '' & amp; # 39; with emboldened Trump anchor CNN tears Trump to stone while reminiscent of the Clinton-Lynch reunion on the tarmac Hill's 12:30 report: New Hampshire fallout MORE concluded that the Trump campaign had attempted to plot with a radical and systematic attack on Russia in the 2016 elections.

A second article said who knows what kind of aid Russia and North Korea will bring to the Trump campaign, now that he has invited them to offer their help?

The lawsuit, which accuses the Post of harboring extreme bias against the Trump campaign and Republicans in general, says the articles will require costly efforts for the campaign to correct the matter.

The defamatory article forced, and will force the campaign, to spend money on remedial advertising and otherwise disclose the facts that it did not conspire with Russia in 2016 and is not seeking to help Russia or North Korea in the 2020 elections, according to the lawsuit. The campaign was damaged in the millions of dollars, the specific amount to be proven at trial.

The trial faces long chances in the courts. To succeed, the campaign will have to bear the heavy burden of proving that the allegations of the Posts were false statements of fact and were published with real malice or reckless disregard for the truth.

The Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Muellers' investigation for almost two years has revealed dozens of links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, but the investigation has not established a criminal conspiracy.

Although the investigation identified numerous links between people linked to the Russian government and people associated with the Trump campaign, the evidence was not sufficient to support the criminal charges, the report concluded. of the special council.

The Trump campaign trial cited specific parts of a June 13, 2019, Washington Post opinion article that described the report's findings.

Mueller also concluded that Trump and / or his campaign had strongly encouraged, attempted to plot and joyfully benefited from these efforts. Still, Mueller has not found sufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy, wrote Greg Sargent, opinion editor at the Washington Post.

The two Washington Post articles made reference to an ABC News interview of June 13, 2019 in which Trump seemed open to accepting harmful information about his political rivals from foreign countries.

Your campaign this time, if foreigners, if Russia, if China, if someone else offers you information about opponents, should they accept it or should they call the FBI? ABC News & # 39; s George StephanopoulosHHS chief George Robert Stephanopoulos says "partisan sniper" during coronavirus crisis is "pointless" Biden says Sanders would "find it very difficult" to help Democrats keep the house , win the Senate Biden says he lifted millions of primary school days in South Carolina PLUS asked Trump in an oval office swap.

I think you may be doing both. I think you may want to listen, there is nothing wrong with listening. If someone called from a country, Norway, we have information about your opponent. Oh, I think I want to hear it, replied Trump.