A week before the election, the lawyer of the US President-elect Donald Trump, Edward Andrew Paltzik, sent a letter to The New York Times and Penguin Random House demanding $ 10 billion in damages for "false and defamatory statements" in materials critical of Trump, Columbia Journalism Review reports, having read the message.
The letters refer to a book by Suzanne Craig and Russ Buettner about Trump and his financial transactions entitled "Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success," published on September 17, and articles by NYT journalists Peter Baker entitled "For Trump, a life full of scandals is approaching a crucial moment." from October 20 and Michael Schmidt "As the elections approach (former White House chief of Staff John) Kelly warns that Trump will rule like a dictator" from October 22.
The letter signed by Trump's lawyer accuses the NYT of being a "mouthpiece of the Democratic Party" that uses "slander on an industrial scale against political opponents." The publication responded to Paltzik's letter by sending it to Penguin Random House in connection with the accusations against Buettner and Craig's book — it is mentioned in the articles that caused the claims, and added that it supports the material, a source familiar with the situation told CJR.
Also on October 31, Paltzik, on behalf of Trump, sued CBS News, claiming that a 60-minute interview with his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, was edited to help her, which is "election interference." Trump's lawyer demanded damages in the amount of $ 10 billion. The channel considers the claim "absolutely unfounded" and intends to defend itself.
On the same day, Trump complained to the Federal Election Commission about the Washington Post newspaper, claiming that it illegally supported the Harris campaign. WP found the accusations unfounded. The newspaper broke a long-standing tradition and did not support any of the candidates this year.
In addition, on November 5, lawyers representing Trump campaign co-chairman Chris Lachivita demanded that The Daily Beast correct and refute a number of articles claiming that Lachivita "earned" $ 22 million on Trump's re-election campaign. The publication added an editor's note to its material, which states that the correct amount is $ 19.2 million (the amount was also changed in the text), and payments did not come directly to Lacivita, but to his company of the same name (LaCivita LLC).
An article about the "earnings" of the Trump campaign was published on October 15, and on November 2, the Daily Beast reported that the future president was "furious" about the data on Lachivite and could fire him. Both materials were changed on November 8. However, the changes did not satisfy Lachivita and his lawyers — on November 12 they sent a letter to the editorial office demanding a refutation, RBC clarifies.
"The editor's note in this article explaining that $ 22 million was transferred to the company "Lachivita", and not to him personally, does not change the general meaning of the article, in which Mr. Lachivita is depicted as fraudulently appropriating money for the election campaign for his personal benefit and that he was and is on the verge of "dismissal" from the- for this," CJR quotes an excerpt from the message.