It was a couple of weeks ago when Donald Trump peddled a curious boast via his social media platform. “These vicious Communists, Marxists, Fascists, and Radical Left Democrats have attacked my lawyers at a level never seen before, and yet I keep on winning,” the former president declared.
This was wrong for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the unfortunate timing: As Trump bragged about his legal victories, he continued to suffer legal defeats. NBC News’ latest report on a defamation case filed by the Republican served as a timely reminder: His losing streak is far from over.
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit Donald Trump filed against CNN in which the former U.S. president claimed that references in news articles or by the network’s hosts to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election as “the Big Lie” was tantamount to comparing him to Adolf Hitler.
The jurist who heard the case, U.S. District Court Judge Raag Singhal, was appointed to the federal bench by Trump.
For those who might need a refresher about this lawsuit, let’s revisit our earlier coverage and review how we arrived at this point.
Even before his 2020 election defeat, Trump became unusually litigious when it came to independent news organizations. The Republicans’ campaign filed suit against CNN, for example, and it didn’t turn out well. Trump also sued The New York Times, which also proved pointless. His suit against social media giants was also dismissed.
Despite this record, the former president decided last fall that it’d be a good idea to sue CNN, in large part because some of its on-air hosts referenced the “Big Lie” when talking about Trump’s post-election lying. Trump sought $475 million in punitive damages — yes, he wanted nearly a half-billion dollars — as well as compensatory damages to be determined at trial.
A Washington Post analysis explained soon after that the lawsuit was “riddled with factual errors and non sequiturs” and leaned heavily “on random Twitter users.”
My MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown took a closer look at the specific claims raised by Trump’s lawyers and concluded, “All told, this is less a case of defamation and more a case of crying ‘they were mean to me.’”
Even a Trump-appointed judge struggled to see the merits.
As for why this is so notable, there are a few angles to keep in mind. The first is that Trump seems to think he can wage a legal war against news organizations, and those efforts keep failing spectacularly. The second is that the former president apparently expects people to believe that he and his legal team are racking up wins, even as reality tells the opposite story.
But I also noticed that a New York Times report on the outcome added that the judge in this case “dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning Mr. Trump is not permitted to file another lawsuit under the same reasoning.”
Trump has already faced sanctions for having filed frivolous litigation. I’ll be curious to see if his case against CNN leads to similar punishments.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.