Donald Trump is seeking $475 million in punitive damages in his defamation lawsuit against CNN.
Deadline reports that Trump claims CNN used its “massive influence” to “defame the Plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers for the purpose of defeating him politically.” The 76-year-old’s attorneys accuse the media outlet of using “Big Lie” on several instances to reference Trump’s still-unfounded belief that voting fraud contributed to his loss in the 2020 presidential election, claiming the term was also utilized by Adolf Hitler in his manifesto Mein Kampf.
“CNN’s highly defamatory and persistent association of the Plaintiff to Hitler and Hitler’s ‘Big Lie’ is no mistaken misappropriation,” his attorneys wrote. “It is wanton and malicious ‘reporting’ intended to feed a narrative and to achieve a desired end: to cause readers and viewers to associate the Plaintiff with the lowest of low, to fear him, to not vote for him, and to support campaigns against him.”
Trump threatened to take legal action against CNN in July. In a 282-page letter, the defeated former president defended his claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and demanded that CNN “publish a full and fair correction, apology, or retraction,” adding that failure to “publish such a correction, apology, or retraction will result in the filing of a lawsuit and damages being sought against you, CNN!”
Trump alleges CNN has ramped up its damaging and disparaging remarks in recent months amid concerns that he will run for president in 2024.
