Newspaper Industry News

Why Trump Wouldn’t Win a Libel Suit Against The New York Times

It would give new meaning to “trumped up” lawsuit.

Donald Trump is threatening a lawsuit against The New York Times after it detailed allegations of sexual harassment by two women. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson’s White House chances might be greater than Trump’s prospects for courtroom success against the newspaper.

His lawyer wrote the newspaper and said the story is “reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se.” He demanded a retraction, called the story “nothing more than a politically-motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trump’s candidacy” and claimed (his own sourcing is unknown) that that the paper “performed an entirely inadequate investigation to test the veracity of these false and malicious allegations.”

“The irony of Trump’s threat is that the landmark US Supreme Court case involving defamation suits by public officials against the press is New York Times v. Sullivan…

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