The New York Times Responds to Trump’s Lawsuit Threat: Bring It On

‘We Welcome the Opportunity to Have a Court Set Him Straight’

Late Wednesday evening The New York Times published a story featuring the allegations made by two women who say Donald Trump sexually assaulted them. Almost immediately the Trump campaign threatened a lawsuit if the newspaper did not retract it and apologize.

Thursday Trump’s attorney sent the Times its demand, and the Times has just responded, basically daring the Republican presidential nominee to go ahead. 

Legal experts say the Times is on solid ground. Trump is a public figure. The Times is not publishing information they believe to be false.

In their response, the Times says that Trump himself, not the Times, ruined his reputation.

RELATED: Over the Past 24 Hours 12 Women Have Come Forward to Accuse Donald Trump of Inappropriate Behavior

“The essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one’s reputation,” an attorney for The New York Times, wrote in a letter to the Trump campaign. 

“Mr. Trump has bragged about his non-consensual sexual touching of women. He has bragged about intruding on beauty pageant contestants in their dressing rooms. He acquiesced to a radio host’s request to discuss Mr. Trump’s own daughter as a ‘piece of ass.’ Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward to report on Mr. Trump’s unwanted advances. Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself.”

The paper added, “we welcome the opportunity to have a court set him straight.”

Burn.

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Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license