The Trump campaign filed a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times Wednesday over a 2019 opinion piece published in the newspaper that claimed the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia had a “quid pro quo” deal with Russia. The op-ed in question, titled “The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo” and written by former Times executive editor Max Frankel, allegedly “selectively” refers to previously reported communications between a Russian lawyer and campaign associates and “insinuates that these contacts must have resulted in a quid pro quo or a deal,” the lawsuit states. The campaign claims the Times’ own reporting at the time confirmed that then Special Counsel Robert Mueller would “conclude” that there was no “deal,” and the Times either published the op-ed knowing the claims were false or had “reckless disregard for the truth.” The lawsuit also claims the newspaper “decided” to publish the piece ahead of the Mueller report’s release because they knew Mueller’s conclusions would “exonerate the Campaign from allegations of collusion with Russia regarding the 2016 election.” The lawsuit, filed in the New York State Supreme Court, is asking for unspecified damages.
Jenna Ellis, senior legal adviser to Donald J. Trump for President, said the statements in the op-ed were “100 percent false and defamatory” and the Times published it with the “intentional purpose of hurting the campaign, while misleading its own readers in the process.” In a statement, the Times said the Trump campaign was attempting to “punish an opinion writer for having an opinion they find unacceptable” and the law would protect their statements.
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