President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign sued the New York Times for libel Wednesday over a 2019 opinion article called “The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo.”
The campaign is seeking millions of dollars in damages, according to the suit, filed in Manhattan and reviewed by TheWrap. The article, by former Times executive editor Max Frankel, reports “as fact a conspiracy with Russia,” according to the suit. The suit also accuses the paper of “engaging in a systematic pattern of bias” against the president’s reelection campaign.
The lawsuit says 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.” In the filing, the campaign also demanded a jury trial.
In a statement to TheWrap, a New York Times spokesperson said, “The Trump Campaign has turned to the courts to try to punish an opinion writer for having an opinion they find unacceptable. Fortunately, the law protects the right of Americans to express their judgments and conclusions, especially about events of public importance. We look forward to vindicating that right in this case.”