It can be challenging to keep up with the many lawsuits Donald Trump<\/a> and his team have filed against assorted news organizations, but the president’s media company sued The Washington Post<\/a> over a 2023 article<\/a>accusing the newspaper of a “years-long crusade” and being part of a “conspiracy” to harm the company. As part of its defamation suit, the Trump Media and Technology Group sought $3.8 billion in damages.<\/p>\n

That didn’t go well. The Post reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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A federal judge on Thursday ruled in favor of The Washington Post, throwing out a $3.8 billion defamation lawsuit filed in 2023 by President Donald Trump’s social media company, Trump Media and Technology Group.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber, who is based in Tampa, wrote in a summary docket entry — known as a minute order — that Trump Media “failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence” that The Post “published the allegedly defamatory statements with actual malice.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Time will tell what becomes of the litigation — an appeal seems likely — though recent history suggests the plaintiffs should keep their expectations low. Indeed, recent history is highly relevant.<\/p>\n
The Trump campaign’s 2020 case against BLN failed<\/a>. Trump’s 2021 case against The New York Times failed<\/a>. Trump’s 2023 case against journalist Bob Woodward failed<\/a>. The Trump campaign’s case against the Post failed<\/a>. Trump’s class-action lawsuit against social media giants<\/a> also failed<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Last year, Trump filed a $15 billion civil suit<\/a> against The New York Times, which was thrown out four days later, not because it lacked merit, but because a federal judge found that the president’s lawyers’ court filing was simply too ridiculous<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Two months later, Trump’s media company also lost<\/a> a defamation suit against The Guardian.<\/p>\n
As recently as April, Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal was also thrown out of court<\/a>though he and his lawyers refiled the case a month later.<\/p>\n
Americans have never before had a president who sued independent news organizations, individual journalists or both for publishing reports the White House disapproved of, but we have also never before had a president lose so many cases while in office.<\/p>\n
As for the larger context, let’s not miss the related larger lesson related to the importance of pushback. When Trump filed a dubious case against ABC News, the network and its corporate parent agreed to a $16 million settlement<\/a>. When he filed an even weaker case against CBS News, its owner, Paramount, also struck a $16 million deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n
In the weeks and months that followed, Trump repeatedly pointed<\/a> to these<\/a> controversial settlement agreements as evidence<\/a> of his targets’ guilt, even as those networks denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, news organizations that stood up for themselves and resisted the ridiculous attempts at intimidation have prevailed.<\/p>\n
Let this be a lesson to the larger political world: Resistance is far more successful than appeasement. It’s true when it comes to law firms<\/a>it’s true when it comes to higher education<\/a> and it’s true in his court fights against news organizations.<\/p>\n
This post updates our related earlier coverage<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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