Trump Files $10 Billion Lawsuit Against CBS Over Kamala Harris Interview

Former President Donald Trump filed a surprising $10 billion lawsuit against CBS News on Thursday, arguing that the network’s recent interview with Vice President Kamala Harris amounted to “a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election,” according to The Washington Post. The lawsuit alleges that CBS edited the footage to favor Harris, painting her in a positive light to influence voters—a claim that CBS swiftly dismissed as “completely without merit.”

The lawsuit represents an escalation of Trump’s recent public threats against CBS for airing the interview. For major-party candidates, interviews such as this are a standard part of the election cycle, and Trump had declined an interview with CBS, citing frustration with his portrayal in his previous 2020 interview with Lesley Stahl.

CBS responded to the lawsuit by defending its journalistic integrity, stating that the Harris interview was “fairly presented to inform the viewing audience, and not to mislead it.” Legal experts note that Trump’s case faces an uphill battle due to the strong protections the First Amendment provides journalists for editorial decisions. Even if Trump’s team were able to prove that the footage was edited to favor Harris, the legal threshold for defamation or election interference by a news network remains extremely high.

Adding to the intrigue, Trump’s legal team filed the suit in the Amarillo division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, ensuring it would be assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk. Appointed by Trump, Kacsmaryk has become a controversial figure in legal circles, as conservative lawyers often turn to his court for rulings on divisive cases—a practice known as “judge-shopping.”

Kacsmaryk has ruled in favor of conservative cases in the past, most notably in a recent high-profile attempt to block access to the abortion drug mifepristone. The case, brought by the far-right Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, argued that the FDA had been negligent in approving the drug, though the ruling was ultimately overturned by the Supreme Court.

Trump’s choice of venue highlights the political strategy behind his lawsuit. Kacsmaryk’s court has become known for rulings aligned with far-right legal arguments, which gives Trump’s legal team a potentially sympathetic venue for the lawsuit despite the legal challenges they face in proving CBS’s alleged bias.

Legal analysts widely view the lawsuit as a long shot. The First Amendment provides robust protections for the press, and historically, U.S. courts have set a high bar for public figures like Trump to win cases involving alleged media bias or defamation. This case, they argue, is unlikely to meet that standard, especially given the broad leeway courts give news networks in determining how they present content.

While Trump’s suit may ultimately be dismissed, the filing reinforces his continuing strategy of casting the media as biased against him. By filing this lawsuit in a court known for conservative-leaning rulings, Trump’s team may hope to sustain public debate over media treatment of him, even if the case lacks strong legal footing. For CBS, the lawsuit represents yet another episode in the ongoing conflict between Trump and major news outlets, a battle that seems set to continue well into the 2024 election season.