AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
A federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against CNN, specifically noting that the network’s use of the phrase “Big Lie” to describe Trump was not a false statement of fact.
The president had sued CNN in 2022 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, seeking $475 million in punitive damages, complaining about the network’s use of the term “Big Lie” to describe Trump’s unfounded claims about the 2020 election being stolen and other comments aired on CNN.
In 2023, that lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice (meaning it cannot be amended and refiled) in an opinion written by Judge Raag Singhal, a Trump appointee, who wrote that this rhetoric was opinion, not a false statement of fact, and therefore could not support a claim of defamation.
Singhal’s ruling was affirmed by a three-judge panel on the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that consisted of Judges Adalberto Jordan, an Obama appointee; Kevin Newsom, a Trump appointee; and Elizabeth L. Branch, also a Trump appointee.
In an eight-page per curiam opinion, the court found that Trump’s arguments were “unpersuasive” and the lawsuit had been properly dismissed as “meritless,” and specifically again rejected the president’s claims that “Big Lie” was a false statement of fact (citations omitted):
Trump has not adequately alleged the falsity of CNN’s statements. Therefore, he has failed to state a defamation claim.
Trump’s other arguments are likewise meritless. He argues that the district court erred in limiting its analysis to the five defamatory statements that he listed in his complaint. According to Trump, the district court should have also analyzed the “more than sixty instances of defamation set forth in the Notice Letter to CNN” and the “nearly 7,700 instances in which CNN had defamed Plaintiff with the ‘Big Lie’ allegation.” Trump has not alleged that any of these “instances of defamation” refer to something other than CNN’s use of “Big Lie.” We have held that, by using “Big Lie” to describe Trump, CNN was not publishing a false statement of fact. Therefore, whether CNN used “Big Lie” one time or many is irrelevant to the question of falsity.
“The appeals court decision reaffirms that American news outlets tend to prevail when they stand their ground rather than settle out of court with Trump,” wrote CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter about the ruling.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team issued a statement:
There is no doubt that Fake News CNN defamed President Trump and all of the tens of millions of Americans who have rightly stated that the 2020 Presidential Election was rigged and stolen by Crooked Joe Biden and his handlers. President Trump will continue to hold the mainstream media accountable and will pursue this case against CNN to its just and deserved conclusion.
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The post Dismissal of Trump’s CNN Lawsuit Affirmed by Appeals Court: Using ‘Big Lie’ Not Defamatory first appeared on Mediaite.
