(AFP) – A US federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against CNN for describing his claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen as the “Big Lie.” District Court Judge Raag Singhal, who was appointed by Trump during his first term in the White House, tossed out his $475 million suit against the Cable News Network in July 2023.
Trump, in the suit filed in a district court in Florida, alleged that the use of the phrase the “Big Lie” by CNN associated him with tactics used by Adolf Hitler. The network’s use of “Big Lie,” he said, was a “deliberate effort by CNN to propagate to its audience an association between the plaintiff and one of the most repugnant figures in modern history.” Singhal, in her ruling, said “the complained of statements are opinion, not factually false statements, and therefore are not actionable.”
A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. “Trump has not adequately alleged the falsity of CNN’s statements,” the panel, which included two judges appointed by Trump, said. “Therefore, he has failed to state a defamation claim.”
Trump, who returned to the White House in January after winning the November 2024 election, continues to insist falsely that he won the 2020 presidential vote against Democrat Joe Biden. The Republican president has had a caustic relationship with CNN and other major news organizations, branding them “fake news” and repeatedly raging against them on social media.
He has filed a number of lawsuits against media outlets and has reached monetary settlements in a number of cases. He threatened last week to sue the BBC for up to $5 billion over a misleading edit to the speech he delivered before the January 6, 2021 assault by his supporters on the US Capitol. Trump was accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results, but the case was dropped after the November 2024 election under a Justice Department policy of not indicting or prosecuting a sitting president.
© 2024 AFP
