Aside from ongoing criminal investigations, former President Donald Trump also faces several ongoing lawsuits. This week, a New York judge has ultimately dismissed Trump’s libel lawsuit against news outlet New York Times.
New York Supreme Court Justice James d’Auguste ultimately dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against the news outlet Tuesday for libel. Trump and his campaign filed a libel lawsuit against the New York Times over its op-ed piece titled “The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo,” written by Max Frankel. In the piece, Frankel said that there was an “overarching deal” of Russia helping Trump and his campaign smear then-candidate Hillary Clinton back in 2016 in exchange for a pro-Russia foreign policy under the Trump administration. The piece was also published at the time when special counsel Robert Mueller was conducting an investigation towards possible Russian interference during the elections.
d’Auguste dismissed the case citing that the op-ed piece was a “nonactionable opinion” and that even if it was not the case, Trump has failed to provide proof of malice in what he claimed was a defamatory piece.
Trump filed the lawsuit back in February of 2020. The date of filing may be seen as unusual given that presidents do not usually take up legal battles during a reelection campaign. Because the dismissal was with prejudice, the Trump campaign can no longer re-file the lawsuit over the opinion piece. Despite the dismissal of Trump’s lawsuit against the outlet, the judge also declined a request by the New York Times to seek monetary sanctions on the campaign over the lawsuit.
In other related news, Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, revealed that he met with the Manhattan District Attorney’s prosecutors for the seventh time. The meeting, held virtually over Zoom, lasted for two hours, according to Cohen, also comes in the wake of district attorney Cyrus Vance’s investigation into Trump’s taxes, having obtained his financial records a few weeks prior.
Cohen said that he spoke with lead investigator Mike Pomerantz, general counsel Carey Dunne, assistant district attorney Solomon Shinerock, and Vance during the meeting. Trump recently visited New York for the first time since leaving the White House. The former president was seen visiting Trump Tower and left with boxes of files before returning to Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where he resides full time.