Donald Trump tried to sue The Washington Post for defamation for reporting in 2016 on special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. It was dismissed for a second time this week, legal reporter Zoe Tillman revealed.
In Feb. 2023, U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington ruled that there was no "actual malice" in the report from The Post or the writer when the piece was published, Tilman wrote. He asked Trump's lawyers if they wanted to amend their complaint to give more information that could actually be litigated, and it appears that Trump's lawyers were unable to do it. Thus, the case was finally thrown out officially.
The second piece that the Trump lawyers went after was a 2020 opinion piece. That's protected by the First Amendment.
The lawsuit was one of several that Trump filed in 2020 in New York and Georgia, complaining of defamation. The cases in those states have also been thrown out.
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His most recent case is against veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward is trying for another angle, saying that Woodward's release of the audio tapes violates Donald Trump's copyright. It might run into trouble because Trump never filed a copyright for Woodward's tapes.
On his personal social media site, Trump claims that his conversations with Woodward were "off the record." Trump didn't make that claim when Woodward's book Rage came out, however.
While he appeared fine with Woodward's text quoting Trump, the release of the tapes was something for which Trump believes he deserves financial credit.
When Woodward compared the Trump tapes with former President Richard Nixon, Trump posted an all-caps attack calling it "DEFAMATORY!" He hasn't sued for defamation either.
