Threat of media lawsuit by Donald Trump “completely unnecessary” – legal analyst

Fox News legal analyst and lawyer Jonathan Turley wrote in a blog post on Sunday that former President Donald Trump's threat of a media lawsuit against CBS was “completely unnecessary,” both in terms of the law and the media to be held accountable.

Turley, a professor at George Washington University Law School who frequently defends Trump, wrote that the Republican presidential nominee “should not sue CBS.” The blog post comes after Trump criticized the network on a Friday episode of The Dan Bongino Show for his 60 minutes Interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that aired October 7th.

During the interview with correspondent Bill Whitaker, the Democratic candidate discussed, among other things, her foreign policy stance on Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as her plans for the economy and gun control. The interview has been edited and contains several cuts.

Following the interview, Trump's campaign team called for the full transcript to be released, saying the broadcast had been “misleadingly edited.” The network released the transcript of the broadcast interview the night the episode aired, but many called for the full interview transcript to be released.

Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said New York Post Earlier this month: “The word salad was incorrectly changed to soften Kamala’s idiotic reaction. Why? 60 minutes They decided not to air Kamala’s full word salad and what else didn’t they air?”

The post said Leavitt was referring to an answer in the broadcast version of the show to a question about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that differed from an earlier promotional clip shared by 60 minutes.

“The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript of Kamala’s sit-down interview. We demand it.” 60 minutes and CBS to release it. “What do she and Kamala have to hide?” Leavitt added.

To The Dan Bongino Show, Trump said Friday: “So I think I’m actually going to sue them (CBS). I think so. No, guess what? You can't defend it. And if they do, and even if they win, it will be very embarrassing.

Turley wrote in his blog post that while he agreed with “the media's criticism, including CBS, of the bias exhibited in the election,” the lawsuit “would be legally baseless” and “fail,” adding that “the media “is entitled to participate in such processing.”

Newsweek has contacted Trump's campaign spokesman, Harris' campaign team and CBS 60 minutes Press team emailed for comment Sunday morning.

The day after Harris 60 minutes In a broadcast interview, Trump accused CBS and the Harris campaign of violating “an important campaign finance regulation.”

“It could also be a serious campaign finance violation. This is irreparable damage to 60 Minutes' reputation – it will always remain with this once storied brand. I've never heard of anything like this being done in 'News.' This is the definition of FAKE NEWS! The public deserves a HUGE AND IMMEDIATE APOLOGY. This is an open case and must be investigated starting today!” the former president wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.

However, federal campaign finance rules do not apply to editorial decisions made by private news organizations.

On October 15, Trump re-posted about the interview, writing on Truth Social: “What 60 Minutes did was election interference and fraud.”

Trump's comments come amid rising tensions 60 minutes after he refused to take part in an interview. CBS correspondent Scott Pelley said Trump initially agreed to a sit-down interview but later backed out.

However, Steven Cheung, Trump's campaign spokesman, told Axios: “There were discussions, but nothing was ever planned or set. They (CBS) insisted on stopping the interview to check the facts.”

In his Sunday blog post, Turley wrote that “bias itself is generally not a crime. Additionally, there were moments when Whitaker pressured Harris.”

He continued: “The threat of vexatious lawsuits destroys any moral high ground Trump has. It is also completely unnecessary,” arguing that “there is no lawsuit that can do the damage that the mainstream media is doing to itself.”

Turley criticized the “old” mainstream media but insisted that “now more than ever we need a neutral and objective media.” He wrote: “CBS is a network with a history of true legends in the field…The current reporters and editors are destroying American journalism with their obvious bias and hostility.” Turley concluded that “the public and the market (not lawsuits )” will be the ones who will hold the media accountable.

A poll conducted by the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll between October 11 and 13 found that 85 percent of voters believe CBS should release the full transcript, not just the broadcast version. Eighty-seven percent of Democratic voters said the transcript should be released by CBS, as did 88 percent of Republican voters and 80 percent of independent voters.

The poll was conducted among 3,145 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.8 percentage points.