Trump’s litigation counsel contacted CNN Wednesday to place a formal threat of legal action due to CNN’s ‘unfair, unfounded, unethical and unlawful’ coverage revealed in secretly recorded video footage by Project Veritas. According to Fox News and other publications, a CNN spokesperson said that Donald Trump’s lawyer, Charles Harder, sent a letter that CNN viewed as a “desperate PR stunt.”
An alleged CNN whistleblower claimed that the network is spreading messages of propaganda, instead of news. This may be what prompted Trump’s lawyer to get involved. Harder sent CNN a letter about two days ago that the network seems to have disregarded. Harder’s letter calls for a discussion to determine payments for damages and other “appropriate measures that are necessary to fully address the magnitude of the situation.”
Harder went on to claim that CNN violated the Lanham Act’s trademark governance. Hypothetically, if it was found that CNN was definitively unfairly covering the U.S. president while being billed as “journalists” and “truth seekers,” the organization would be in violation. In addition, CNN is being accused in the letter of going against the Society for Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics. Failure to honestly and accurately share news stories and inform the public is in violation of the ethical code, so dismissing Harder’s claim as a PR stunt has not opened up dialogue to further the development of this potential issue.
The letter mentions video, recorded by Project Veritas, that apparently shows low-level CNN staffers discussing liberal bias at the network and CNN president, Jeff Zucker, opting to ignore a story in favor of producing more coverage of Trump. Former CNN employee Cary Poarch was secretly filming staffers and the morning editorial meeting for CNN. Earlier this week, Trump suggested he might take legal action after seeing the tapes for himself. Now, that is exactly what is happening, as Harder began legal proceedings with his initial letter.
Project Veritas is an activist group in the United States dedicated to uncovering “liberal bias and corruption.” The secret recordings obtained by the organization have not been independently verified yet and according to the Atlantic, Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe paid $100,000 to a man wrongfully defamed by the activist group. Despite such controversies, the Project Veritas footage is trusted enough by Harder to refer to it in his letter to CNN.
“In the footage, your employees appear to state that CNN attempts to make its reporting appear neutral and unbiased,” wrote Harder, “when in fact its reporting is far from neutral and highly biased against the President.”
Harder does not believe that CNN is reporting the news in an objective manner and that it is instead operating on a “personal vendetta” to allegedly ‘take down President Trump.’ Trump’s legal team provided CNN with lists of comments about the footage that CNN employees made in response. According to harder, the network is not being fair to Trump and it seems that this letter threatening a potential lawsuit is just the start.
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