CBS filed a motion to dismiss President Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit over its controversial “60 Minutes” Kamala Harris interview, calling the suit an “affront to the First Amendment without basis in law or fact.”
Trump alleged that “60 Minutes” “deceptively edited” the interview to make his opponent in the 2024 presidential election look better, citing “voter interference.”
He filed the lawsuit in October, a month before winning the presidential election, and has pressured the Tiffany Network to publicly release the unedited transcript and video of the former vice president in a bid to show there was nothing unusual about the editing.
Lawyers for the Paramount Global-owned network said in their motion to dismiss late Thursday: “This lawsuit is an affront to the First Amendment and is without basis in law or fact.”
They added that Trump is seeking to “punish a news organization for constitutionally protected editorial judgments they do not like.”
“They not only ask for $20 billion in damages but also seek an order directing how a news organization may exercise its editorial judgment in the future,” they wrote. “The First Amendment stands resolutely against these demands.”
If the case is not dismissed, the attorneys asked for it to be transferred from the US District Court in the Northern District of Texas to the Southern District of New York, where the headquarters of CBS News is located.
The move comes as Paramount has been in talks with Trump’s legal team about potentially settling the lawsuit with the hope that Trump and his Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr will allow its merger with Skydance to go through.
Carr is investigating the matter, even as “60 Minutes” brass have insisted that the edit was merely for clarity and that there was no foul play.
“This lawsuit is completely separate from, and unrelated to, the Skydance transaction and the FCC approval process,” a Paramount Global spokesperson said. “We will abide by the legal process to defend our case.”
In a statement to Axios, Trump attorney Ed Paltzik said the president is “committed to holding those who traffic in fake news, hoaxes and lies to account.”
“CBS and Paramount committed the worst kind of election interference and fraud in the closing days of the most important presidential election in history,” he said. “President Trump will pursue this vital matter to its just and rightful conclusion.”
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