David Enrich:
Well, lawsuits like this have become increasingly common. And this is a tactic that Trump decades ago began pioneering. And he has just been banging this drum more and more loudly ever since.
And it’s a tactic that’s caught on, especially in MAGA circles, but really, politicians, business leaders, companies, big organizations are increasingly using defamation threats and defamation lawsuits as kind of a cudgel to attack unfavorable news coverage.
And the reality in this case is that, according to everyone I have spoken to, Trump’s case against ABC News seemed not great. And there are very strong protections built into the First Amendment and how it’s interpreted by the Supreme Court that give the media and others a lot of leeway when they are scrutinizing powerful individuals, no more so than the president-elect of the United States.
And it’s basically meant to prevent exactly this type of lawsuit. So I think ABC had a pretty good chance of prevailing in court if they had wanted to let it go that power.
