Let’s Talk Lawsuits
Donald Trump is threatening to sue the New York Times for saying he has had inappropriate sexual grabby stuff.
Some states (not Texas) have SLAPP suits, where you can sue someone to make them not say something that they haven’t said yet. Weird, right? Here’s the fine print: A SLAPP suit is one “intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.”
So, he wants to subvert the First Amendment. That’s a nice way to start the day.
However, if Trump does sue, that means there will be loads of “discovery motions,” meaning that he will have to produce all those tapes from the Apprentice, which is exactly what he’s trying to avoid.
And there’s one more trick to all this. You can’t sue somebody for saying the same thing you are saying about yourself – even if what you are saying about yourself is untrue.
Let’s pretend that I announced that I’m a thief, even if I have never stolen anything. Then you claim I’m a thief. I can’t sue you.
Whatever Donald is paying his lawyers, it’s too much.
Trump: A Boy Claimed Sue.
1Hahah Susan and JAKV!
2This has been Dumbo’s MO all along. He used the court as a weapon to intimidate and silence people who had legitimate gripes. But now, he is caught like the rat he is, by that Access Hollywood tape. The NYT has the resources to stand up to the bully, so let’s see if he follows through, given all that he has to lose.
3“Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel”. Mark Twain
4Remember, his own lawyers double team him because they know he has this propensity to deliberately mis-remember what was said during meetings.
5You think he pays attention to his lawyers???
6Truth is what he says it is. We can believe him after all he told us too. What more proof do you need? Believe him not your eyes and ears. Look at how many buy that..
7Juanita, you have to remember that the lawyer he employed in his early days was Roy Cohn, a particularly nasty specimen. Among other things, Cohn was gay, but persecuted the gays. He was also one of Joe McCarthy’s attorneys in the good ol’ red scare HUAC days (another was Richard Nixon).
Cohn surely understood how to use the law to harass, rather than to reach a settlement. I’m guessing the Donald has learned this lesson well.
8The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc. should file a class action lawsuit against Donnie for assaulting our sensibilities. The proceeds would be a nice chunk of change toward turning Texas blue and flipping the US House of Representatives.
9Maryelle: And his supporters now are trying to trash these women, asking “why haven’t any of them come forward before?”. (Even though some have) Because young women/girls who accuse powerful/rich men of sexual misconduct are always treated well by our society, right? Unfortunately for Donnie though, as was pointed out by someone on msnbc last night, this is a familiar pattern. Think Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bill Cosby. Once the first accusations come out, these ladies aren’t afraid anymore. They’re made as hell. It’s gonna be interesting to see how many come forward. Also, rolling stone has a clip of Joe Biden on Seth Meyers’ show that should be required viewing. I love that guy.
10Mad, not made. DAMN autocorrect.
11WTG Papa.
Updated:
“Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink, electrons or photons by the barrel”. Mark Twain
This should all be over on the ninth of next month.
12Then T-raunch’s financial ’empire’ collapses, then his creditors extract every bit of what’s left.
And then extract revenge as only the Putinites can (polonium 210, 9×18mm Makarov, PSS VUL, SAM, virii, various poisons, etc).
Karma’s a bitch, couldn’t happen to a viler guy.
“And then extract”…”exact” stupid…
13@Sandridge
It won’t be over for the snacilbupeR until the 28th. That’s when they vote.
14T-rump has found out the truth of “Them that talks it, walks it.” He cannot and will not get out of this manure pit.
15Micr, that would be nice, but I think that’s about the time that start blowing and shooting chit up in their “revolution”.
BTW, I’m dead serious.
An aside, think of poor little Bermuda. A whole effen Atlantic Ocean to traverse and Cat 3/4 Hurricane Nicole hits a bullseye on Bermuda.
16Thought prior restraint was dead?
17So Trump is threatening to sue because the Times has said or may say that Trump “has had inappropriate sexual grabby stuff.”
Isn’t that precisely what Trump is saying about Bill Clinton?
I think Bill should sue.
18If Trump spends enough money on lawyers to sue the NY Times, he’s sure to hire a few more accountants so the expenses can be categorized as a tax write off. Then he can go another couple of decades without contributing to American society and infrastructure.
19There are plenty of people that hope Trumpenstein will keep digging that legal hole a lot bigger…
20The orange-atang has truly blown himself up, along with the snacilbupeR and white evangelicals. I see 3 sweet outcomes from this debacle:
1. He hits bankruptcy that’s his own, real, personal bankruptcy. Plus worldwide disgust and humiliation. (It would be good for the kids to have to make their own way.)
2. snacilbupeR regroup and return to being the party of Eisenhower and Nixon, and drop the Moral Crusader Hate & Bigotry crapola.
3. The average white evangelical in the pew realizes that those wealthy leaders like F Graham, Falwell Jr, Dobson, Jeffress, etc, are really just grubby religious scammers.
All of the above equals a functioning government and nation.
21JJ: SLAPP suits can occur in any state of the union. SLAPP laws are intended to discourage them, by allowing someone being sued to demonstrate to a court in preliminary motions that the suit is a ‘Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation’, i.e., is intended to keep a matter of public interest away from the public.
“A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.[1] Such lawsuits have been made illegal in many jurisdictions on the grounds that they impede freedom of speech.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_lawsuit_against_public_participation
22The Times’ lawyers sent a response to Trump saying there was no way they were going to retract the story.
They essentially said the story couldn’t possibly be libelous since Trump had no reputation to protect.
It’s priceless.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/13/us/politics/david-mccraw-trump-letter.html
23you have to love the response:
http://www.nytco.com/the-new-york-timess-response-to-donald-trumps-retraction-letter/
24The reply from the NYT’s lawyers was simply great.
However, I was hoping for something more along the lines of the reply made in the case Arkell v Pressdram
25The NY Times must be jumping for joy. What this will do to enlarge their readership is miles beyond fantastic. Wonder what their signage is on the NY Stock Exchange?
26Did y’all hear Michelle Obama’s speech about the scumbag’s disgusting tape? Wow. It was so good, incredibly powerful, might make you cry. It’s very good for men to hear too, because Michelle so eloquently describes what it’s like for women in this patriarchal country.
Michelle is trending on Twitter with the hash tag #Michelleforpresident
27I added “2024”.
NYT vs DJT. I♡NY.
28Trump sure hates the Constitution. Not only does he want to but the first amendment, he wants to repeal the 19th. You know, ladies, the one that gave us the right to vote. So he can win the election. There just aren’t enough vile adjectives to describe the depth of trump’s depravity. And he is calling his brown shirts to armed insurrection. Get out the vote! He must lose by the largest margin possible. The the Russians and the Germans will call all the loans. Personally I’d like to see him end up sleeping on a steam grate. Queen Nemesis and her good buddy Lady Karma always win.
29Trump’s lawyers probably know better, but they get paid by the hour. I suspect at least one of them has read the case New York Times vs Sullivan (1964). The NYTimes has been here before and won in the Supreme Court 9-0.
30