Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
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Donald Trump has promised to prosecute his political opponents if he were to retake the White House. He plans to remove the firewall that has traditionally existed between the White House and the Justice Department and use federal prosecutors to do political dirty work.
But Trump isn’t waiting for Inauguration Day, or even Election Day, to get something similar going — and his first target is the press: In the past 24 hours, Trump has filed legal complaints against two news organizations with frivolous allegations. Whether they succeed may not matter, because they are a warning of what will happen if he wins.
Media organizations are well aware of the risks of thwarting Trump, and some already appear to be backing away.
Thursday Trump indicted CBS News during October’s “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. In the lawsuit, Trump claims the interview was edited to make Harris look good, which amounts to election interference. “To cover up Kamala’s ‘word salad’ weakness, CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to cross the line from exercising judgment in reporting to deceptive, deceptive manipulation of news,” the complaint alleges. He is seeking ten billion dollars in damages.
According to experts, the lawsuit is legally ridiculous. “It’s ridiculous garbage and it should be mocked,” says Harvard professor Rebecca Tushnet told CNN. But the fact that it was filed in Amarillo, Texas, is a sign that Trump means business. The only logical reason to file the case with this division is to secure a friendly judge, a practice known as judge shopping. And in Amarillo, the lone federal judge is one of the most ideologically driven conservative judges in the country: Matthew Kacsmaryk. Kacsmaryk has shown a willingness to step outside the bounds of the law and file lawsuits he agrees with. Most famously, he eschewed long-held legal doctrine blocking FDA approval of the abortion drug Mifepristone. (The Supreme Court overruled him.)
There is also a political reason for filing the lawsuit, which follows weeks of Trump publicly complaining about CBS’ editing of the interview. The possibility of pointing to a media bias lawsuit strengthens his argument to supporters that the press is the enemy and works for the other side.
It’s one thing for Trump to sue CBS as a citizen. But if he wins, Trump could ensure that these types of lawsuits come from the Justice Department. It is a warning shot to the media that any reporting Trump deems unfavorable, including an interview with a rival, could land them in court against the US government.
Media organizations are well aware of the risks of thwarting Trump, and some already appear to be backing away. Exhibit A is the last-minute decisions of the billionaires who own the Washingtonpost and the Los Angeles Times to prevent their newspapers’ editors from making last-minute Harris recommendations. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, owner of the Afterhas billions in government contracts that could be wiped out in retaliation under a Trump presidency.
Trump is already focusing on the After. On Thursday, the campaign presented a complaint to the Federal Election Commission, alleging that by paying to boost stories critical of Trump, the Washingtonpost illegally donated to the Harris campaign. Clearly, Bezos’ decision not to endorse Harris has not reassured Trump.
These attacks on both the After and CBS should sound the alarm bells. They also follow Trump’s attempts to punish CNN for its reporting during his first term, and his repeated calls for every major television broadcaster to lose its broadcast license. Whether Trump could achieve such a feat remains to be seen unclear– for starters, local affiliates have the licenses – but the message Trump is sending is being heard loud and clear: if Trump wins, he will take revenge on the press.
Indeed, he has already started.