Trump sues CBS over “60 Minutes” interview with Harris. Legal experts call it “reckless and dangerous”

CNN
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Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday against CBS Broadcasting Inc. and CBS Interactive Inc., seeking $10 billion in damages over the network's “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. The lawsuit was immediately condemned by First Amendment lawyers, who called it “frivolous and dangerous.”

In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, Trump's legal counsel alleged that the CBS “60 Minutes” interview with Harris and the related broadcast were “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference” designed to ” to mislead the public.” and try to tip the balance in the presidential election in their favor.

The lawsuit also states that Trump wanted the network to “publicly release the full, unedited transcript of the broadcast.” [interview].”

The U.S. District Court in North Texas currently assigns cases so that any case filed in its Amarillo division is automatically assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee.

It was unclear why the lawsuit was filed in the Texas court, but it could be a case of “judge shopping,” the practice of strategically filing cases in courthouses where the lawsuits are almost guaranteed to be heard by judges who do Be sympathetic to litigants.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that CBS's interview with Harris on the show was grossly misedited on behalf of the campaign, and he has called for the network to “lose its license.”

“To cover up Kamala's 'word salad' weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line between exercising judgment in reporting and fraudulent, fraudulent manipulation of news,” the filing says.

Trump's legal counsel argued that “CBS's misconduct was unconscionable because it amounted to a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.”

A CBS spokesman said Trump's claims to “60 Minutes” were false.

“The interview was not manipulated; and 60 MINUTES didn't hide any part of the vice president's answer to the question in question. 60 MINUTES presented the interview fairly to inform the audience and not to mislead them. The lawsuit Trump filed against CBS today is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend it,” the spokesperson continued.

The lawsuit was immediately dismissed by prominent First Amendment lawyers, who called it baseless and absurd.

“This is a reckless and dangerous attempt by a politician to control the news media. The Supreme Court has made it crystal clear: The First Amendment leaves it up to journalists — not the courts, the government or candidates for office — to decide how the news is reported,” said First Amendment lawyer Charles Tobin the Ballard Spahr law firm.

Floyd Abrams, the First Amendment lawyer famous for the Pentagon Papers, agreed, telling CNN: “The First Amendment was designed to protect the press from just such litigation.” Mr. Trump doesn't like this or that coverage of him “I agree, but the First Amendment allows the press to decide how to cover elections, not candidates seeking public office.”

Rebecca Tushnet, the Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment law at Harvard Law School, put it more simply: “It's ridiculous garbage and should be ridiculed.”

Trump mentioned the lawsuit during his Thursday rally in Henderson, Nevada, saying, “Today, in honor of you, I just sued CBS.”

CNN previously reported that Trump backed out of a scheduled interview with “60 Minutes” in early October.

In a statement, the Trump campaign denied agreeing to the interview.

CNN's Kate Sullivan and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.