Trump’s $10 Billion Lawsuit Against CBS Predicts a Potentially Dire Future for Journalism

After several weeks of offensive publications about the vice president Kamala HarrisInterview from October 7 60 minutesformer president Donald Trump on Thursday filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the program’s network, accusing it of “election fraud and election interference.” First Amendment lawyers agree the lawsuit is frivolous. But he will appear before the judge Matthew Kaczmarikan activist appointed by Trump who has historically not allowed legal or intellectual rigor to get in the way of his ideology.

The lawsuit speaks to the hostile climate facing American journalism under a second Trump administration, with both on social media and on the campaign trail the Republican presidential candidate threatening to jail journalists and calling on major networks to strip them of their broadcast licenses. But few networks have drawn Trump’s ire like CBS, which aired an interview with Harris earlier this month.

60 minutes has traditionally interviewed both presidential candidates during election years, but Trump declined the program’s invitation due to concerns that its producers would fact-check him. Instead, the former president railed against a show on Truth Social where he claimed, without evidence, that 60 minutes edited Harris’ interview to make her sound smarter and more articulate. Trump’s lawyers made similar claims in court papers, arguing that the editing of the CBS interview constituted a “blatant attempt to interfere with the 2024 US presidential election.” Rebecca TushnetFrank Stanton professor of First Amendment law at Harvard Law School, called the lawsuit “ridiculous junk that should be ridiculed” in comments to CNN. For its part, CBS has categorically rejected Trump’s accusations that the edits to Harris’ interview were excessive or unfair. In an Oct. 20 statement, the network invited the former president to say it to their faces, so to speak: “If he wants to discuss the issues facing the nation and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on the air.” 60 minutes“

Notably, Trump’s lawyers filed the lawsuit in the Amarillo Division of U.S. District Court in North Texas, a seemingly unusual choice for a Florida-based candidate and a New York-headquartered network. But the choice of venue ensures the case will go before Kaczmarik, an outspoken conservative who has built a national reputation for his sympathy for anti-abortion, anti-immigration and anti-LGBTQ plaintiffs.

The case also provides insight into the potential fate of First Amendment rights during Trump’s second term. In addition to his ongoing feud with CBS, the former president last month called for ABC to be stripped of its license after being fact-checked during a September debate, and last year demanded that NBC be investigated for “treason.” Trump has also vowed to jail journalists, editors and publishers for protecting confidential sources. “When this man realizes that he is soon going to be the bride of another prisoner, he will say, ‘I wish I could tell you who it was,’” Trump said at a 2022 rally.

Press freedom organizations warn that Trump’s rhetoric has already made journalism more dangerous. A February survey of more than 600 journalists across the United States found that more than a third had been threatened with physical violence. Many said they felt especially unsafe while covering Trump rallies and Stop the Steal protests.