Appeals Court Denies Trump’s Attempt To Revive Lawsuit Against CNN, but His Other Media Lawsuits Are Moving Forward

President Trump has suffered another setback in his effort to sue CNN for defamation as a federal appellate court unanimously rejected his attempt to revive his litigation. But some of the president’s other lawsuits against the media are moving forward and defying the defendants’ efforts to get them thrown out.Mr. Trump first filed his $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN in 2022. He argued that the network tried to “taint” him with “a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler.’” The complaint listed several examples of CNN allegedly likening him to Adolf Hitler, including a 2022 report from Fareed Zakaria that included footage of the German dictator.However, a district court judge, Raag Singhal, a Trump appointee, dismissed the case in 2023, saying that references to the “Big Lie” were opinion and not made as factual statements. In November, a three-judge panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected Mr. Trump’s request to revive his lawsuit. On Tuesday, the full appellate court declined to revisit the decision. Politico’s Josh Gerstein noted that there are five justices on the 11th Circuit who were appointed by Mr. Trump, but none voted in favor of holding a hearing to revive the president’s lawsuit. In a one-paragraph decision, the court said that “no judge in regular active service on the court … requested that the court be polled on rehearing en banc.”The decision to affirm previous rulings rejecting Mr. Trump’s effort to sue CNN may give staffers at the beleaguered network a small sense of relief as they prepare to be taken over by Paramount Skydance, which is controlled by the Trump-aligned Ellison family.The CEO of Paramount Skydance, David Ellison, told CNBC earlier this month that he wants CNN to maintain its independence. But he said it should speak to “70 percent” of America.Anonymous staffers at the cable network have repeatedly expressed their concerns to left-wing media reporters that Mr. Ellison will try to make the network friendlier to Mr. Trump. Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon chief, recently said he looked forward to the Ellisons taking over CNN.A former CNN reporter, Peter Hamby, said on Puck’s “The Powers That Be” podcast that he knows “for a fact” that several correspondents will not have their contracts re-signed and are trying to sign short-term contracts that will expire at the end of the year to extend their payments. For now, the repeated refusals to revive Mr. Trump’s lawsuit mean that CNN will avoid the dilemma that has plagued other news outlets sued by the president: Spend the time and resources to fight the litigation in court, and possibly lose, or settle and potentially offer a statement of apology.Despite mainstream media referring to Mr. Trump’s various lawsuits against elite media as “baseless” and “frivolous,” the president has seen considerable success, in part because he files the suits in Florida and (in one case) Texas, where judges and juries are less friendly to the media.In December 2024, ABC paid $16 million to settle Mr. Trump’s defamation lawsuit, filed in Florida, after host George Stephanopoulos falsely and repeatedly said the president had been “found liable for rape.” The network later released a statement expressing its and Mr. Stephanopoulos’ “regret” for the language used. Last year, CBS News staffers were aghast over negotiations to settle Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, filed in Texas, against the network over its editing of Vice President Harris’s October 2024 interview with “60 Minutes.” Staffers were opposed to the idea of a settlement. But they especially loathed the idea of the network issuing an apology for an editorial decision that they did not believe was deceptive or unethical. CBS’s parent company eventually agreed to pay $16 million to settle the lawsuit, but did not issue an apology for the editing of the Harris interview. While Mr. Trump suffered a setback in his lawsuit against CNN, he has seen some wins in other active cases, such as his defamation lawsuit against the Pulitzer Prize board for awarding the 2018 national reporting prize to the New York Times and the Washington Post for their reporting on now-discredited claims that the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russia. In 2022, the board made a serious legal error, publicly reaffirming its decision to award the prize, even after the special counsel who investigated allegations of Russia interference, Robert Mueller, said he could not find evidence of collusion. The affirmation restarted the clock on the case, allowing Mr. Trump to sue unhindered by the statute of limitations.Multiple courts have rejected the board’s request for a change of venue or to delay the trial until Mr. Trump leaves office, and the case has entered the discovery phase.The president is also suing the BBC for defamation. The broadcaster suffered a setback last month when the Florida-based judge set the trial date for the case, rejecting a motion to delay the discovery process.Mr. Trump sued the BBC after a dossier exposed the network’s deceptive editing of his January 6 speech, which aired in a 2024 “Panorama” episode.An internal BBC report found that the contract producers of a “Panorama” documentary spliced together two sections of the president’s speech, which were actually roughly 50 minutes apart, to make it appear as though he stated, “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol… and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.” The edited version also removed his call for his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”The call for his supporters to behave “peacefully and patriotically” was an important part of Mr. Trump’s defense against the accusation that he had encouraged violence.The BBC has apologized for the documentary and promised not to air it again, and the controversy contributed to the resignations of its top executives. However, it filed a motion this week to dismiss the case, arguing that the president cannot show he was harmed, since he won the 2024 election and the documentary was not distributed in America. The judge has yet to rule on that motion. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the president said that he will not drop the case. He also repeated his claim that the BBC used AI to alter his speech, which does not appear to be the case. Since the BBC is a public institution funded by mandatory fees paid by British taxpayers, a large settlement would be controversial.Mr. Trump is also suing the Des Moines Register, Gannett, and pollster J. Ann Selzer over a poll that was published days before the 2024 election that showed Ms. Harris had a lead in Iowa. The president alleges the poll constituted consumer fraud. The defendants won their motion to move the case to federal court, but in October, a federal appeals court said the case should play out in state court, where it was initially filed, a win for Mr. Trump. The case is on hold pending the judge’s decision on whether to grant the Des Moines Register’s motion to dismiss the case. Mr. Trump also has a lawsuit pending against the New York Times, over a book written by reporters at the Times, “Lucky Loser,” which says he “squandered his father’s fortune” and “created the illusion of success.”The president is also fighting to keep his $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal alive. The lawsuit stems from an article detailing a birthday letter he allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein that featured an outline of a naked woman. In October, Mr. Trump rejected the Journal’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.

Appeals Court Denies Trump’s Attempt To Revive Lawsuit Against CNN, but His Other Media Lawsuits Are Moving Forward

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