The article named in the lawsuit was authored by Max Frankel on March 27, 2019 titled, “The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo” which claimed the Trump campaign had an “overarching deal” with Russian President Vladimir Putin — “the quid of help in the campaign against Hillary Clinton for the quo of a new pro-Russian foreign policy.”
The lawsuit states The Times had no proof of its claims of a “quid pro quo” or a “deal” with Russia.
Trump’s campaign is seeking millions of dollars in damages and asserted “The Times knowingly published false and defamatory statements of and concerning plaintiff Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. (the “Campaign”), claiming it had an “overarching deal” with “Vladimir Putin’s oligarchy” to “help in the campaign against Hillary Clinton” in exchange for “a new pro-Russian foreign policy, starting with relief from the Obama administration’s burdensome economic sanctions.”
The lawsuit accused The Times of engaging in a systematic pattern of bias against the Trump campaign “designed to maliciously interfere with and damage its reputation…”
“The Times was well aware when it published these statements that they were not true. The Times’ own previous reporting had confirmed the falsity of these statements,” the lawsuit stated. “But The Times published these statements anyway, knowing them to be false, and knowing it would misinform and mislead its own readers, because of The Times’ extreme bias against and animosity toward the Campaign, and The Times’ exuberance to improperly influence the presidential election in November 2020.”
The lawsuit claimed that “the falsity of the story has been confirmed” by Robert Mueller’s April 2019 report.
“But The Times published these statements anyway, knowing them to be false, and knowing it would misinform and mislead its own readers, because of The Times’ extreme bias against and animosity toward the Campaign, and The Times’ exuberance to improperly influence the presidential election in November 2020.”
The Trump campaign is seeking “compensatory damages in the millions,” and costs of suit among other damages.
Source: TGP
