The Trump campaign filed a libel lawsuit against The Washington Post on Tuesday for allegedly “intentionally publishing false statements” against President Trump’s re-election effort. The lawsuit took issue with two opinion pieces published in the newspaper in June 2019. The lawsuit claims the first article, by Post opinion writer Greg Sargent, stated that ex-Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report concluded that Trump’s 2016 campaign “tried to conspire with” Russia—which they say is not what Mueller concluded. However, Sargent did note in his piece that “Mueller did not find sufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy.”
The lawsuit also claimed the second article, from Post opinion writer Paul Waldman, suggested Russia and North Korea would give “aid” to the 2020 campaign now that Trump “invited them to offer their assistance.” “There has never been any statement by anyone associated with the Campaign or the administration ‘inviting’ Russia or North Korea to assist the Campaign in 2019 or beyond,” the lawsuit states. “There also has never been any reporting that the Campaign has ever had any contact with North Korea relating to any United States election.”
The campaign is asking for “compensatory damages in the millions of dollars.” The lawsuit comes after the campaign filed a similar lawsuit against The New York Times last week.
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