Former President Donald Trump has sued CBS News, alleging the network’s “deceitful” editing of a recent 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris misled the public and unfairly disadvantaged him.
In a statement released Thursday, CBS News called the former president’s claims “completely without merit” and said the network intended to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.
The lawsuit, which comes just days before the two candidates face off in the 2024 presidential election, centers on two clips of an October interview 60 Minutes conducted with Harris. One of the clips was edited to include a longer section of her response to a question about the conflict in the Middle East. Trump’s lawsuit contends this editing decision was meant to intentionally assist his opponent and mislead the public, something CBS News has disputed.
“To paper over Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from the exercise of judgment in reporting to deceitful, deceptive manipulation of news,” the lawsuit claims. The suit says the former president seeks a jury trial and at least $10 billion in damages.
“Former President Trump’s repeated claims against 60 Minutes are false,” the network statement says. “The Interview was not doctored.”
Trump’s legal complaint was filed Thursday in federal court in the Northern District of Texas Amarillo division, a remote venue where the lone judge is a 2019 Trump appointee. Republican-led states and special interest groups have directed at least 14 politically sensitive cases to that court since January 2021, according to progressive watchdog group Accountable.US.
The lawsuit does not claim Trump was defamed by the network, said Geoffrey R. Stone, a First Amendment scholar and law professor at the University of Chicago, who reviewed the complaint. Instead, the suit attempts a novel use of a Texas statute that is meant to prevent advertisers from misleading the public about a product being sold — the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act.
Stone called it a “misapplication” of the law.
“That statute is about sales — a salesperson can be held liable for stating that a product has certain positive effects when he knows it doesn’t,” Stone said. “But CBS is not engaged in advertising here.”
Harvard Law Professor Noah Feldman, a constitutional law expert, said he was mystified by the Trump claims and called the case an “outrageous violation of First Amendment principles.”
“This is a complaint so ill grounded that it comes close to being sanctionable as frivolous,” Feldman said.
The former president has for weeks been voicing his displeasure about the interview on the campaign trail.
“Millions of Americans, including residents of Texas and this District, were confused and misled by the two doctored Interview versions,” the suit alleges.
In an earlier statement released by 60 Minutes, the network explained the two clips were edited differently because one segment, which appeared on “Face the Nation,” afforded more time to accommodate a longer section of Harris’s answer.
“Same question. Same answer. But a different portion of the response,” the Oct. 20 statement from 60 Minutes said. “When we edit any interview, whether a politician, an athlete, or movie star, we strive to be clear, accurate and on point. The portion of her answer on 60 Minutes was more succinct, which allows time for other subjects in a wide ranging 21-minute-long segment.”
Trump had been invited to sit for his own interview on 60 Minutes but declined.
The former president has previously filed several lawsuits against media organizations, including a March defamation case against ABC News over a question asked by anchor George Stephanopoulos during an interview.
He has lost prior defamation lawsuits against CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times.
