Trump's team has filed a 282-page document threatening to sue CNN for calling his debunked voter fraud claims 'baseless'

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Trump's team has filed a 282-page document threatening to sue CNN for calling his debunked voter fraud claims 'baseless'
Former President Donald Trump's legal team sent a letter to CNN's leadership on July 21 asking for the retraction of "numerous articles and televised transmissions."Chet Strange/Getty Images
  • Trump is threatening to sue CNN over their coverage of his baseless voter fraud claims.
  • Trump released a statement on Wednesday saying he would also sue media outlets that "defamed" him.
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Former President Donald Trump is still hung up on the 2020 election and is now threatening to sue CNN for calling his debunked voter fraud claims "baseless."

Trump released a statement on Wednesday saying he had notified CNN that he intended to file a lawsuit against the network, citing "repeated defamatory statements" against him.

"I will also be commencing actions against other media outlets who have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud throughout the 2020 Election," Trump wrote. "I will never stop fighting for the truth and for the future of our Country!"

The statement came close to a week after Trump's legal team sent a letter to CNN's leadership on July 21 asking for the retraction of "numerous articles and televised transmissions" within 10 days.

According to Trump's legal team, the former president's remarks shouldn't be considered lies as he "subjectively believes that the results of the 2020 presidential election turned on fraudulent voting activity in several key states."

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The legal team further argued that CNN has refused to acknowledge that Trump could be right.

Representatives for CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

Trump has also accused the network of defaming him by referring to his voter fraud claims as "false narratives" and "baseless theories."

Amongst the Trump team's various justifications for asserting that Trump's comments are not groundless was a citation of Dinesh D'Souza's election film, "2000 Mules," a self-touted documentary that even former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr has mocked.

A fact check of the movie by The Associated Press said that the film used "a flawed analysis of cellphone location data and ballot drop box surveillance footage" as part of its basis for questioning the integrity of the 2020 election.

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Trump, however, has lauded "2000 Mules" while repeating the debunked claim that it exposed "great election fraud."

Since the 2020 election, the Trump camp has attempted to file dozens of lawsuits over the former president's baseless claims of voter fraud, most of which have been denied, dismissed, or withdrawn. The former president has also repeatedly insisted that the election was stolen from him, despite the wealth of evidence that indicates otherwise.

If this lawsuit does kick off, it will be just one of many legal issues that the former president is currently entangled in.

This is not the first Trump has tried to sue a media outlet. In 2020, his campaign also sued The New York Times over an op-ed, although the suit was dismissed in March 2021.

Trump's lawsuit threat against CNN suggests that he may be far from done with the 2020 vote.

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Last week, a top Wisconsin official said he received a call from Trump this month urging him to decertify President Joe Biden's election win in the state.

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