Trump Campaign Sues New York Times, Accuses It Of Extreme Bias

The re-election campaign of President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit against the New York Times Co. NYT, citing extreme bias and animosity.

What Happened

Trump’s re-election campaign filed a complaint against the New York Times on Wednesday in the Supreme Court of the State Of New York.

The campaign alleges NYT published false and defamatory statements concerning the campaign’s links with Russia and Vladimir Putin.

Jenna Ellis, Senior Adviser to Trump’s campaign, claims that the suit had been filed for falsely stating the campaign had an “overarching deal” with “Vladimir Putin’s oligarchy” to “help the campaign against Hillary Clinton in exchange for a new pro-Russian foreign policy.” 

Why It Matters

The publication has been sued before. The New York Times v. Sullivan is a landmark case tried in the Supreme Court in 1964 when the court ruled that the First Amendment protects media and allows false statements to be made about public figures as long as they are not published with actual malice.

The First Amendment requires that the plaintiff demonstrates the defendant knew a statement was false or reckless when it decided to publish the information. 

The Trump campaign’s complaint claims that statements published by The Times were “false” and published with “reckless disregard for the truth.”

Price Action

New York Times shares traded 0.031% lower at $37.39 in the after-hours session on Wednesday. The shares had closed the regular session 0.090% higher, at $37.42.