Trump sues CBS News; the network says it’s “completely baseless”

Former President Donald Trump is suing CBS News, alleging that “deceptive” editing of a recent 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris misled the public and unfairly disadvantaged him.

In a statement released Thursday, CBS News called the former president’s claims “completely baseless” and said the network intends to vigorously defend itself against the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, which was filed days before the two candidates face off in the 2024 presidential election, focuses on two excerpts from an October “60 Minutes” interview with Harris. One of the clips was edited to include a longer clip of her answering a question about the conflict in the Middle East. In the lawsuit, Trump maintains that this editorial decision was intentionally intended to help his opponent and mislead the public, which CBS News denies.

“To cover up Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national program 60 Minutes to cross the line from judgmental reporting to fraudulent and deceptive news manipulation,” the lawsuit said. The lawsuit says the former president is seeking a jury trial and damages of at least $10 billion.

“Former President Trump’s repeated claims against 60 Minutes are false,” he said network statement says. “The interview was not fake.”

Trump’s legal complaint was filed Thursday in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo division, a remote location where the only judge is a Trump appointee in 2019. As of January 2021, Republican-led states and states, according to the progressive watchdog group Accountable.US. special interest groups have referred at least 14 politically sensitive cases to this court.

The lawsuit does not accuse Trump of online defamation, said Geoffrey R. Stone, a First Amendment scholar and law professor at the University of Chicago who reviewed the complaint. Instead, the lawsuit attempted to make a novel use of a Texas statute that is designed to prevent advertisers from misleading the public about the product they are selling – the Texas Consumer Protection Act’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Stone called it a “misapplication” of the law.

“This bill is about sales – a seller can be held liable for claiming that a product has some positive effects when they know it doesn’t,” Stone said. “But CBS is not in the advertising business here.”

Harvard law professor Noah Feldman, an expert in constitutional law, said he was baffled by Trump’s claims and called the case “an outrageous violation of the principles of the First Amendment.”

“This is a complaint so unfounded as to be considered frivolous,” Feldman said.

The former president has been voicing his dissatisfaction with the interview on the campaign trail for weeks.

“Millions of Americans, including residents of Texas and this District, were confused and misled by two falsified versions of the interview,” the lawsuit alleges.

In an earlier statement released by 60 Minutes, the network explained that the two clips were edited differently because one segment that appeared on “Face the Nation” allowed more time to include a longer portion of Harris’ response.

“Same question. Same answer. But another part of the answer,” October 20 statement from 60 minutes he said. “When we edit an interview, whether it’s a politician, an athlete or a movie star, we try to make sure the content is clear, accurate and specific. Some of her responses on “60 Minutes” were more concise, which allowed time for other broader topics throughout the 21-minute episode.”

Trump was invited to his own interview on “60 Minutes,” but rejected.

The former president has already filed several lawsuits against media organizations, including a March defamation case against ABC News over a question asked by anchor George Stephanopoulos during an interview.

He has lost previous defamation suits against CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.

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