NYT on Trump’s Threat to Sue: ‘We Welcome the Opportunity to Have a Court Set Him Straight’

Monica Sanchez | October 13, 2016
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Donald Trump has threatened to sue The New York Times over a recent report alleging he sexually assaulted two women.

He said during a rally in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Thursday that his team is preparing a lawsuit against the newspaper.

On Thursday, Trump’s lawyer Marc E. Kasowitz sent a letter to The New York Times demanding “a full and immediate retraction and apology,” saying “your article is reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se."

“It is apparent from, among other things, the timing of the article, that it is nothing more than a politically-motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trump’s candidacy," the letter reads. “We hereby demand that you immediately cease any further publication of this article, remove it from your website and issue a full and immediate retraction and apology. Failure to do so will leave my client with no option but to pursue all available actions and remedies.” 

The New York Times’ general counsel David McCraw replied in a letter, “We decline to do so,” reports CNN.

He said that the claim of libel has no merit as Trump, "through his own words and actions, has already created for himself" a reputation for degrading women.

McCraw added that The Times welcomes “the opportunity to have a court set [Trump] straight.”

"The essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one's reputation,” writes McCraw. “Mr. Trump has bragged about his non-consensual sexual touching of women. He has bragged about intruding on beauty pageant contestants in their dressing rooms. He acquiesced to a radio host's request to discuss Mr. Trump's own daughter as a 'piece of ass.' Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward to report on Mr. Trump's unwanted advances. Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself."

He continues, "The women quoted in our story spoke out on an issue of national importance -- indeed, an issue that Mr. Trump himself discussed with the whole nation watching during Sunday night's presidential debate.... It would have been a disservice not just to our readers but to democracy itself to silence their voices.... If Mr. Trump disagrees, if he believes that American citizens had no right to hear what these women had to say and that the law of this country forces us and those who would dare to criticize him to stand silent or be punished, we welcome the opportunity to have a court set him straight."

A lawsuit has not been filed yet. 

"Lawyers are doing the due diligence needed to file such a massive suit," an anonymous Trump campaign official told CNN. 

The Times story featured two women claiming Trump touched them inappropriately. Their accounts have not been confirmed. 

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