Judge Throws Out Trump Campaign’s Defamation Lawsuit Against New York Times Over Russia ‘Quid Pro Quo’ Op-Ed – By Adam Klasfeld (Law and Crime) / Mar 9 2021
The New York Times won the dismissal of the lawsuit filed by former President Donald Trump’s campaign over the op-ed “The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo” on Tuesday, with a Manhattan judge finding the column was “nonactionable opinion” and the complaint failed to show actual malice.
“The court made clear today a fundamental point about press freedom: we should not tolerate libel suits that are brought by people in power intending to silence and intimidate those who scrutinize them,” New York Times general counsel David McCraw told Law&Crime in an email.
“We are pleased that the court has delivered that message powerfully today,” he added.
Published just before the release of the Mueller report—but after former Attorney General Bill Barr’s selectively quoted summary of it—the Times column by former executive editor Max Frankel ran an emphatic subhead: “The campaign and the Kremlin had an overarching deal: help beat Hillary Clinton for a new pro-Russian foreign policy.”
