President-elect Donald Trump reportedly sent a $10 billion warning shot across the legal bows of Penguin Random House and the New York Times, threatening to sue the print giants for eleven figures over allegedly “false and defamatory statements” published about him in articles prior to the election, according to the companies.
“There was a time, long ago, when the New York Times was considered the ‘newspaper of record,'” reads a letter from Trump’s attorney, Edward Andrew Paltzik, to Penguin Random House and the Times, which Columbia Journalism Review reviewed and reported on Thursday.
“Those halcyon days have passed,” the letter states, blasting the Times as a “full-throated mouthpiece of the Democratic Party” that uses “industrial-scale libel against political opponents,” according to CJR.
The outlet allegedly had “every intention of defaming and disparaging the world-renowned Trump brand that consumers have long associated with excellence, luxury, and success in entertainment, hospitality, and real estate, among many other industries, as well as falsely and maliciously defaming and disparaging him as a candidate for the highest office in the United States,” according to the correspondence.
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When CJR reported the legal threat on Thursday, it stated that the letter was received one week before the 2024 election. The ten-page warning names writers Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner as responsible for “false and defamatory statements” published by the Times and Penguin Press, a publishing company within the Penguin Random House Group.
According to CJR, some of the “defamatory” comments cited in Trump’s letter are about the future and the former president’s alleged financial dealings, with references to Buettner and Craig’s recently released book, “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success,” which was spurred on by a 2018 expose by the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters and former Times journalist David Barstow, who disputed Trump’s claims of being
“Drawing on over twenty years’ worth of Trump’s confidential tax information, including the tax returns he tried to conceal, alongside business records and interviews with Trump insiders, New York Times investigative reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig track Trump’s financial rise and fall, and rise and fall again,” according to Penguin Press’s description.
Other writings cited by Trump’s lawyer include an October 20 article by Baker for the Times titled “For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment” in which he declared that “no major party presidential candidate, much less president, in American history” had been “accused of wrongdoing” as many times as Trump. Publishers Weekly described “Lucky Loser” as a “scrupulous takedown of Trump’s competence and character” in its September review.
“Given the long list of well-known and historic business achievements by President Trump and his family, President Trump’s remarkable business, literary, media, and real estate achievements, and the fact that President Trump — and his life story — are the epitome of the American Dream and what it means to be an American patriot, as well as his lifelong support for America’s men and women in uniform, these defamatory statements are all the more despicable in their falsehood.
According to CJR, the document alleges that “harm” has been done to the value of Trump Media and seeks $10 billion in damages.
Trump is suing CBS News for the same amount over an October “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, with his attorneys claiming the aired footage was “doctored” to “confuse, deceive, and mislead the public” in order to “tip the scales” in favor of Democrats before the election.
Trump’s campaign slammed the move as “election and voter interference.” The complaint in that case was filed on October 31 in the Northern District of Texas, Amarillo Division, where U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, is the sole federal judge.
On November 5, Trump continued his legal media crusade by sending a four-page letter to the Daily Beast on behalf of campaign manager Chris LaCivita, demanding that the outlet issue a correction and retraction for articles published about his co-chief, including one on November 2 that is now titled, “Trump Raged at Daily Beast Revelation That Campaign Boss’ LLC Got $19.2 Million.”
The Daily Beast first reported that LaCivita “raked in” $22 million to help Trump win the 2024 election. An editor’s note has been added to the Nov. 2 story to clarify that the amount was actually $19.2 million in response to Trump’s letter.
“Editor’s Note: The original version of this article mistakenly reported that LaCivita’s firm had received a total of $22 million from Trump’s campaign and affiliated PACs,” the publication states.
“According to an additional review of FEC records, the correct total is $19.2 million.” The Beast regrets his error. The article has also been updated to clarify that payments were made to LaCivita’s LLC, not LaCivita personally.”
Trump’s crusade began before the election, but it has gained steam as a result of his victory and recent comments, as free speech advocacy watchdog group PEN America noted in a press release on Friday.
“President-elect Donald Trump’s legal threats mark an ominous start to his transition to the White House, signaling his intent to escalate attacks on journalism and publishing,” said Tim Richardson, program director for Journalism and Disinformation at PEN America, in response to CJR’s reporting.
While The New York Times and Penguin Random House may have the resources to defend themselves against these clearly baseless allegations, smaller news outlets and publishers may be forced to censor themselves rather than risk critical coverage of Trump. “That’s the point.”
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According to Richardson, legal threats and lawsuits against CBS and the Times “aren’t about stopping false reporting or even winning cases” filed against them. “They’re about intimidating journalists, writers, and publishers into self-censorship,” he claimed. “The worrisome results will be less accountability for our elected leaders and a less informed public.”
In its press release, PEN America condemned Trump’s threats as part of a “broader pattern by the President-elect targeting media organizations.” The release cited the Times and Random House letters, as well as the CBS lawsuit, Daily Beast editor’s note, and a recent Federal Election Commission complaint against the Washington Post.
“PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide,” according to the organization’s mission statement.
“We advocate for the freedom to write, believing that the written word has the power to change the world. Our mission is to bring together writers and their supporters to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that enable it.”
An insider tells CJR that Penguin Random House issued a statement in response to Trump’s legal warning, stating that it stood by everything it published. It’s unclear if Trump’s lawyer has responded.
The Daily Beast, meanwhile, was unable to get off the hook with its editor’s note after Trump’s team sent a follow-up letter on Nov. 12 saying the move “does not remedy the overall messaging of the story — which depicts Mr. LaCivita as deceptively pocketing campaign money for his own personal gain and that he was and is on the verge of being ‘fired’ because of it,” Politico reports.
“This entire narrative is completely false and a result of malicious and irresponsible reporting by the Daily Beast,” according to the letter. “Specifically, the now ‘corrected’ reporting reduces the $22 million figure to $19.2 million instead.
While not all Daily Beast articles on this subject have yet incorporated the ‘corrected’ figure, some have been ‘updated’ with an editor’s note stating that the $22 million went to LaCivita’s LLC rather than him personally.
The rest of the reporting has remained largely unchanged, and despite the inclusion of the editor’s notes and corrections, it continues to falsely imply that Mr. LaCivita personally pocketed $19.2 million allegedly paid by the Trump campaign for campaign advertising.”
CBS has stated that Trump’s lawsuit against the network is “completely without merit,” and that it will “vigorously defend” itself against it. Another watchdog group, the Committee to Protect Journalists, has condemned Trump’s legal attacks as a “clear and direct danger to media freedom.”
“The hostile media climate fostered during Donald Trump’s first presidency — expected to continue in his forthcoming second term — poses great risks to media inside and outside the country,” the advocacy group said in a statement issued on Nov. 6.
“The threats against, and lies about, the media that have characterized much of the Republican Party’s presidential campaign represent a clear and direct danger to media freedom,” said Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive officer of CPJ. “CPJ will continue to defend a free and independent press in the United States as we do around the world and to take all measures to keep reporters safe.”
