Trump is apparently very upset over statements made by Lawrence O’Donnell last night suggesting that Putin’s Russian oligarchs signed loans for Trump over at Deutsche Bank. Trump’s attorney is threatening a defamation lawsuit if NBC doesn’t retract and apologize:
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – On Wednesday, [Trump’s] personal attorney Charles Harder threatened NBCUniversal with a defamation suit over what was broadcast the previous night on MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. A missive sent to NBCU headquarters, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, also addresses a related tweet.
According to Harder’s demand letter, “The Program and Tweet make the false and defamatory statements that ‘Russian oligarchs’ co-signed loans provided to Mr. Trump by Deutsche Bank, and described these ‘co-signers’ as ‘Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin.’”
Harder is also warning others against republishing the allegedly false statement.
Here’s what was actually said by O’Donnell:
On his Tuesday night show, O’Donnell told colleague Rachel Maddow that a “single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that the Trump — Donald Trump’s loan documents there show that he has co-signers. That’s how he was able to obtain those loans. And that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs.”
O’Donnell then said, “That would explain, it seems to me, every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin, if true, and I stress the if true part of this.”
Trump’s attorney responded this way:
In his letter, Harder characterizes these allegations as extremely damaging to Trump.
“The only borrowers under these loans are Trump entities, and Mr. Trump is the only guarantor,” continues the demand letter. “Numerous documents for each of these loans are also recorded, publicly available and searchable online. Thus, actual malice can easily be proven based on your reckless disregard of the truth and unreasonable reliance on an alleged ‘source’ who you will not even identify in your story and likely is seeking to mislead you and the public for political reasons or other ulterior motives.”
Trump is demanding that O’Donnell and NBCU “immediately and prominently retract, correct and apologize for the aforementioned false and defamatory statements.”
“Failure to do so will leave my clients with no alternative but to consider their legal options which could include immediate legal proceedings against Mr. O’Donnell and NBCU,” concludes the letter. “Should that occur, my clients would pursue all available causes of action and seek all available damages and other legal remedies to the maximum extent permitted by law.”
I suspect NBC will verify what Trump’s attorney is saying and will force O’Donnell to apologize for spewing fake news. If they don’t and Trump wins in court, it will just add merit to his claims that NBC is nothing but ‘fake news’. What do you think?