Trump Media filed a $3.78 Billion lawsuit against the Washington Post last night

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Devon Nunes' idiot attorney is the attorney who filed this lawsuit. The Washington Post printed some facts that TFG does not like. This lawsuit is up there with the Clinton RICO claim, the lawsuit to rescind Pulitzer awards and the lawsuit against Michael Cohen. TFG is a vexatious litigant and should be banned from the courts.

Link to tweet

Here is a link to the pleading
https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2023-05/Complaint%20-%205.20.23_0.pdf

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. TFG's legal team on this lawsuit amuses me

First Amendment law and workers compensation law clearly overlap

Link to tweet

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Surely Jeff Bezos won't be having a cow over that one

This is totally about influencing public opinion. Does TDFG know everyone's made up their mind already?

[Retrograde]

5. Surely a case for MOOt court

Years from now (like 2 or 3) law students all over the country will be retrying Donnie's cases in their moot court sessions, but mainly for the laughs.

[pnwmom]

11. Trump's filed it in a court in FLORIDA, where the fix may already be in. nt

Last edited Sun May 21, 2023, 04:24 PM - Edit history (1)

[Ocelot II]

15. It's in a Florida state court. The president doesn't appoint state court judges.

[H2O Man]

17. +1

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. I suspect that this case will be removed to federal court

[Ocelot II]

22. They don't seem to have pled a cause of action that raises a substantial federal question

and there isn't diversity of citizenship; a corporation is deemed to be a citizen of the state where it is incorporated and where it has its principle place of business. Since both WaPo and Trump Media are Delaware corporations, that would defeat diversity jurisdiction.

[pnwmom]

24. You think Desantis's picks are better? He just appointed a Sarasota judge in April.

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/courts/2023/04/10/desantis-appoints-new-sarasota-county-judge-3-jacksonville-judges/70098530007/

[Ocelot II]

26. Trial court judges are elected in FL, not appointed, unless to fill a vacancy.

The Florida Circuit Court judges are elected via nonpartisan elections. The governor appoints supreme court and district court of appeals judges, but not trial judges; so the judge who presides over this case at this level will not have been appointed by TFG unless appointed to fill a vacancy until the next election.

[pnwmom]

27. There was a vacancy.

From the article I linked to above.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday the appointment of four new judges in Florida, including one in Sarasota County, according to a news release from the governor's office.

Assistant State Attorney Ryan Felix was appointed to fill the judicial vacancy created by the elevation of Judge Dana Moss in November 2022 following the retirement of a circuit court judge. Moss now presides over the Circuit Family Division 1 in Sarasota.

[Ocelot II]

28. And I expect that judge will be conservative.

But he won't necessarily get this case, and if he does, he won't necessarily rule against WaPo. Many judges appointed by TFG or by conservative governors have actually followed the law and ruled against TFG and his entities and interests (as in many of the 60+ election "fraud" cases TFG lost). This seems to be a frivolous case alleging defamation where the statements complained of were, in fact, truthful - WaPo is very, very careful about vetting its sources and thereby avoiding libel claims. Trump Media's lawyers are a couple of the same morons who've lost other cases for TFG, while WaPo has some of the best lawyers in the business. This won't get far no matter who the judge is.

[pnwmom]

32. Right, we can hope for the best. That used to be easier for me than it is now.

Something about the last six years . . .

[Ocelot II]

33. A DeSantis-appointed judge with some allegiance to DeSantis

would want to benefit TFG... why, exactly? If a judge who was loyal to DeSantis wanted to slant the case one way or the other, don't you think he'd want to issue rulings against Trump Media?

[pnwmom]

34. Yeah, that's logical. But a lot of illogical things have been happening over the last several years.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

3. Here is the article that TFG and Truth Social are mad about

Here is a post on the Washington Post article
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100217917571

SPACs are somewhat sketchy which is why the SEC has a ton of rules with respect to SPACs. SPACs took the place of some very very sketchy deals with shell public companies (public companies with more than 300 to 500 shareholders but no assets) would merge into a private company to take that company public without a full registration statement. SPACs have rules to mitigate against the abuses of public shell deals. Who is surprised that TFG would ignored these rules and commit outright fraud. The SEC has blocked the merger of Trump Media & Technology (TFG's entity) with Digitial Acquistion Corp (the SPAC). There is so much fraud here that this story does not surprise me. Both the SEC and the DOJ are involved in this case.

If this deal had been consummated as plan, TFG would be in control of a company with $1.3 billion in assets and could cause a ton of havoc building up a media organization that would has less ethics than Fox News. As noted in this article, SPACs are normally straight forward deals. I heard from a biglaw attorney who have worked on SPACs that these deals tend to be loss leaders for biglaw firms because they are normally very cookie cutter.

I am using a link that allows anyone to read all of the Washington Post article. There is more good stuff in that article than one can post on DU

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/13/trump-truth-social-loan-questions/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjUyOTMyMzQ3IiwicmVhc29uIjoiZ2lmdCIsIm5iZiI6MTY4NDAzNjgwMCwiaXNzIjoic3Vic2NyaXB0aW9ucyIsImV4cCI6MTY4NTMzMjc5OSwiaWF0IjoxNjg0MDM2ODAwLCJqdGkiOiIzMmRkNjc0NS0yNGI2LTQwNzEtOGVmNC0xMWJhYWJjZjEyMDAiLCJ1cmwiOiJodHRwczovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vdGVjaG5vbG9neS8yMDIzLzA1LzEzL3RydW1wLXRydXRoLXNvY2lhbC1sb2FuLXF1ZXN0aW9ucy8ifQ.kTcQvJpqrdTU5v_3CzVq5MxgkHmQUllZV-aztOgDXbY

An obscure financial entity with connections to a Caribbean-island bank that bills itself as a top payment service for adult entertainment sites would gain a sizable stake in former president Donald Trump’s media company if its merger deal proceeds, according to internal documents a company whistleblower has shared with federal investigators and The Washington Post.

Yet the role ES Family Trust would assume in Trump Media and Technology Group has never been officially disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission or to shareholders in Digital World Acquisition, the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, that has proposed merging with Trump’s company.

The companies also have not disclosed to shareholders or the SEC that Trump Media paid a $240,000 finder’s fee for helping to arrange the $8 million loan deal with ES Family Trust — or that the recipient of that fee was an outside brokerage associated with Patrick Orlando, then Digital World’s CEO.......

Company-SPAC mergers are traditionally quick and straightforward affairs, according to a 2020 presentation by lawyers at the firm Morgan Lewis. A SPAC submits a merger registration document called an S-4; the SEC reviews it and asks further questions, often within 30 days; the company sends in answers in an amended filing, the SEC responds within 14 days, and the whole process generally wraps up within a matter of months.

Digital World’s S-4, however, has been in limbo since May 16, 2022, SEC records show. The most recent correspondence from the SEC to Digital World, in August, was a terse boilerplate letter in which an agency official said, “We remind you that the company and its management are responsible for the accuracy and adequacy of their disclosures,” public SEC records show.

[Bev54]

7. Once again, all road lead to Russia

[Ocelot II]

4. Trump's legal team reminds me of Monty Python's Black Knight:

"I'm invincible!" "You're a loony!"

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. Remember when Trump threatened to sue the NYTimes for libel unless they retracted an article

Link to tweet

[Cha]

6. It Not "defamation" if it's TRUE!!

[pnwmom]

12. As long as you assume the Florida judge will rule in keeping with the law. nt

[Frasier Balzov]

9. WaPo paid Nick Sandmann to settle his Lincoln Memorial staredown defamation claim.

They should have know such appeasement was just going to encourage more of that mischief.

[FakeNoose]

10. How can they sue for $3.78 Billion when they aren't worth a tenth of that?

What kind of fantasy world they're living in!

[Hugin]

37. If memory serves...

Coincidentally, yeah I know with the circus in question there are no coincidences, that is exactly the amount Trump owes the knee crackers.

I am seriously beginning to entertain the thought that Trump Media has decided to try to obtain one of those fraudulent “I need my money now, no need to pay back ‘win or lose’” settlement loans as seen on teevee.

[ZonkerHarris]

13. Um, all this does is open up Trump and his entities to depositions and due diligence from WAPO.

Not smart at all.

[Vinca]

14. That's a dream come true for the Washington Post. It's deposition time!

[Hortensis]

23. Yes. Bring it on! time at the WaPo. Female employees

are probably wondering if they'll get to be told he wouldn't be interested in raping them.

[Hekate]

16. Thanks for keeping us posted, LMPV

[Ocelot II]

19. I'm curious about the venue - there might be a few odious judges in Sarasota County

but they wouldn't be TFG appointees because presidents don't appoint state court judges. Why that county, though, other than for some blatant judge shopping, since TFG doesn't live there? The complaint states that both WaPo and Trump Media are Delaware corporations, so why not Delaware, like the Dominion case? I think there are a lot of reasons why this won't go very far.

Read the complaint again - Trump Media's HQ is claimed to be Sarasota. That might be enough for venue. But it's still stupid.

[allegorical oracle]

41. Could be wrong, but I see the venue being in Washington, DC, where the alleged offense

occurred. The Florida WaPo offices are bureaus. In my newspaper experience, the bureau would have validated the documentation and sources, then discussed with a DC WaPo editor as to whether it should be further investigated.

In DC, editors would've met, discussed it and decided to proceed (or not). Given the nod, the bureau would then write the story, send it to DC where it would go through fact-checking to double check the documentation and sources.

From there it would go to layers of editors who would've further pinned down the bureau writers to ensure they hadn't left out some fact that could unravel. If editors decided the story was "hot" it would've been then scrutinized by the newspaper's intellectual property attorneys -- who could've killed it if they thought it was legally jeopardizing.

[Ocelot II]

43. That would be true if this were a federal case, but the FL venue rule says:

47.051 Actions against corporations.--Actions against domestic corporations shall be brought only in the county where such corporation has, or usually keeps, an office for transaction of its customary business, where the cause of action accrued, or where the property in litigation is located. Actions against foreign corporations doing business in this state shall be brought in a county where such corporation has an agent or other representative, where the cause of action accrued, or where the property in litigation is located.

[Takket]

20. How many times do they have to lose in court?

Before they realize this doesn’t work?

How many lawyers have to go without payment?

How many times do they need to pay court costs to the people they sue?

[spanone]

21. He's not paying the bills so he can harass everyone he thinks has slighted him.

vindictive motherfucker

[LetMyPeopleVote]

25. Trump 2020 Campaign Suit Against Washington Post Dismissed

TFG's last lawsuit against the Washington Post flopped
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/trump-2020-campaign-suit-against-washington-post-is-dismissed

A defamation lawsuit by President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign against the Washington Post was dismissed by a federal judge.

US District Judge Rudolph Contreras in Washington ruled Friday that the campaign failed to meet the legal standards for defamation claims over the two articles at issue in the March 2020 suit. One was about the report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and the other was about Trump’s 2020 campaign strategy.

Contreras said the campaign failed to show the writer of the Mueller piece acted with “actual malice.” General allegations of political bias weren’t enough, and there wasn’t evidence the writer knowingly or recklessly published false information, the judge wrote.

The second article was an opinion piece protected by the First Amendment, Contreras found.

[NowISeetheLight]

29. Injured in an Accident?

Sounds like the same lawyers from those funny lawyer commercials on TV.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

30. For this thread

Link to tweet

[GoCubsGo]

31. I'm betting the judge tosses it.

Just another one of Trump's many frivolous lawsuits...

[moonshinegnomie]

35. its time to start disbarring lawyers

[LetMyPeopleVote]

36. The RWNJ media is all over this lawsuit

I have not seen any mention in the sane press yet

[DFW]

38. If they are hoping for a similar settlement to the one Dominion got, they have another think coming

Trumpanzees: We were wronged, give us $3.75 billion!

Bezos:Tell you what, we'll buy you a round of happy meals at McDonald's.

Trumpanzees: That is insulting. TWO rounds of happy meals, or we'll see you in court!

Bezos: You guys drive a hard bargain, but OK.

[MagickMuffin]

39. Gotta love the TRIAL BY JURY IS DEMANDED portion

Jury selection will be vetted by trump media empire!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

40. Steve Bliss is the attorney who filed this lawsuit. This video is great

Link to tweet

[LetMyPeopleVote]

42. I finally found a main stream media source reporting on this lawsuit

The RWNJ media has been covering this lawsuit like crazy and are hoping for a TFG victory. This is a frivolous lawsuit and so I am not surprised that real news sources are not covering this piece of crap of lawsuit.

Link to tweet

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-media-files-3-78bn-defamation-lawsuit-against-washington-post-over-truth-social-reporting/ar-AA1bwIs9?rc=1&ocid=winp1taskbar&cvid=924a515b85f94411c8d0b843ae9f007c&ei=8

The company behind Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform has filed a $3.78bn defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post.

The lawsuit, filed by Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (TMTG) in Florida’s Sarasota County, claims that a 13 May article that alleged the company may have committed securities fraud was false and defamatory, and posed an “existential threat”.

The article titled “Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social” alleged that the company had concealed key details about a proposed merger from the Securities and Exchange Commission and shareholders, citing internal documents provided by a whistleblower......

The case is the latest in a series of defamation suits brought by Mr Trump, his political campaign organisations and companies in recent years.

In March 2020, the Trump Campaign filed a defamation suit against The Post over two articles about Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian collusion and his campaign strategy.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

44. Devin Nunes Steers Trump Media Company Into Dumpster Fire Defamation Suits

There is a separate lawsuit filed by Deven Nunes individually against the Guardian that was also filed by Steve Bliss

Link to tweet

https://abovethelaw.com/2023/05/devin-nunes-steers-trump-media-company-into-dumpster-fire-defamation-suits/

In April, Devin Nunes’s wildly self-destructive defamation suit against journalist Ryan Lizza and Hearst Magazines came to an ignominious end with a federal judge ruling that his family did indeed employ undocumented laborers on its dairy farm. The former congressman’s family spent a couple weeks chasing Lizza around rural Iowa to stop him nosing around their business, only to get dragged into the case and forced to throw open their books in discovery. And now Nunes looks to be working that same magic for his new employer, Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), with a pair of defamation suits against The Guardian and the Washington Post filed in state court in Sarasota County, Florida.

TMTG is in the midst of trying to take itself public via a SPAC known as Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC). But the deal appears to be seriously in jeopardy, with the SEC, FINRA, and the Justice Department investigating DWAC. There are also reports that DWAC’s recently ousted CEO Patrick Orlando, who met with Trump before DWAC’s founding, made it clear from the jump that taking TMTG public was the entire reason for founding the SPAC, a gross violation of SEC rules.

In March, The Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reported that TMTG is under investigation for possible money laundering in relation to an $8 million loan from a company whose main business appears to be processing payments for webcam pornography in the former Soviet Union. In a truly bizarre complaint, Nunes sued The Guardian in his personal capacity, claiming that “Defendants published and republished egregious statements online and via social media (Twitter) that falsely accused or implied that Nunes engaged in or aided and abetted money laundering.”

Nunes is only mentioned in the article twice: once to say that he is the CEO of TMTG, and once noting his denial that he or anyone else at the company had reservations about the source of the loan. Nevertheless, the complaint insists “Defendants’ false criminal charges exposed Nunes to hatred, ridicule, contempt, distrust, and disgrace, and injured his business, reputation and occupation.”

Here is a link to the lawsuit filed by Nunes individually against the Guardian
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23828415/nunes-v-guardian-complaint.pdf
This lawsuit is a piece of crap that should be dismissed