Donald Trump's media company's multi-billion dollar defamation lawsuit against The Washington Post has been branded "absurd" and doomed to fail by a legal expert.
The Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), which is behind the former president's Truth Social platform, is seeking $3.78 billion in damages from the newspaper over claims it poses an "existential threat" to the company after engaging in a "years-long crusade" against the company.
The defamation suit, filed in Florida's Sarasota County, focuses on allegations made by former TMTG vice president of operations turned whistleblower Will Wilkerson, who the suit claims began to "concoct and publicly shop false stories about TMTG to numerous media outlets" following his dismissal.
The suit claims one such "fake news article" appeared in The Washington Post on May 13 with the headline: "Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump's Truth Social."
The article alleged that the company withheld information about the role the ES Family Trust would assume at TMTG from the Securities and Exchange Commission and shareholders amid a proposed merger with special purpose acquisition company Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC).
The article also contains allegations, which are denied by TMTG, that it also did not disclose to shareholders or the SEC that it paid a $240,000 finder's fee for helping to arrange an $8 million loan deal with ES Family Trust, and that TMTG took out the $8 million loan in exchange for stock, but did not tell the SEC.
"Wilkerson knew that WaPo eagerly published false stories about TMTG, its CEO, Devin Nunes ('Nunes') and, of course, former President Donald Trump. Wilkerson contacted WaPo with a salacious story about a porn-friendly bank and securities fraud," the suit states. "Through a series of meetings and conversations with Wilkerson and his lawyers, WaPo undertook with Wilkerson to publish agreed false and defamatory statements to injure TMTG.
"The express meaning and defamatory gist of WaPo's Statements is that TMTG committed securities fraud or aided, abetted and participated in improper acts designed to conceal material facts3 from the SEC and shareholders of DWAC, and that TMTG was being investigated for money laundering," the suit adds.
"The WaPo Statements impute to TMTG crimes, dishonesty, want of integrity and corporate malfeasance. Readers concluded that TMTG and its executives could go to jail because of the non-disclosures described in the WaPo Article."
In order to win a defamation case, the plaintiff must prove the defendant acted with "actual malice"—meaning they were aware that a statement was untrue or acted with "reckless disregard" as to whether it was false or not.
In this case, Camron Dowlatshahi, a Los-Angeles-based employment and defamation attorney, suggested that TMTG are going to have "a very difficult time" proving The Post committed actual malice given their claims stemmed from various sources, including whistleblower Wilkerson.
"I don't see anything in The Washington Post article that seems to be obviously false, and the amount the plaintiff is seeking certainly seems a bit absurd," Dowlatshahi told Newsweek. "It's very unlikely TMTG can prove the requisite degree of actual malice on a defamation claim like this and even if they did, to prove nearly $3.8 billion in damages is really far-fetched.
"I don't even think the company is worth $1 billion, so how are they injured to the point where the business is worthless based on certain statements in this article? It just doesn't make any sense," Dowlatshahi said.
The suit arrived one month after Fox News settled with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million rather than head to what was a hotly anticipated defamation trial.
Dominion was seeking $1.6 billion in damages from Fox News, alleging the company damaged its reputation by repeatedly amplifying false claims that Dominion machines were used to rig ballots in favor of Joe Biden over Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
However, Dowlatshahi suggested there are key differences between the defamation allegations TMTG is aiming at The Post, and what Fox was accused of.
"There, Dominion's entire business hinged on the legitimacy of their systems, which Fox News falsely challenged," he said. "In this case, it strains credulity to imagine that a social media platform's involvement, or lack thereof, with certain investors, would somehow destroy any and all value of the business, or preclude users from continuing to use it."
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Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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