Former President Donald Trump said Monday he is suing CNN for defamation, seeking punitive damages to the tune of $475 million, according to a Florida court filing. In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump claimed that the “time has finally come to hold CNN responsible and legally accountable for their willful deception and defamatory statements made about me.” Trump said he has watched “in disbelief” as CNN allegedly continued to broadcast false or misleading information about him “for years.” According to Reuters, Trump’s 29-page lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, alleges CNN “had used its considerable influence as a leading news organization to defeat him politically.” Trump’s Truth Social post echoed this sentiment, saying CNN’s alleged lies will “be proven in Court.” CNN declined to comment to Reuters. “As a part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance to the left, CNN has tried to taint the Plaintiff with a series of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of ‘racist,’ ‘Russian lackey,’ ‘insurrectionist,’ and ultimately ‘Hitler,’” the lawsuit claims. Trump warned “in the coming weeks and months” that more lawsuits against “Fake News Media Companies” were in the works, even threatening to sue the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, or what Trump called “The Unselect Committee.”
