Paramount and CBS submitted motions on Thursday to throw away the lawsuit of President Donald Trump for an interview of ’60 minutes’ last year, and called the lawsuit an ‘insult to the first amendment’.
Trump sued the network for the first time a few days before the November elections, claiming that the program had violated a Texas Consumer Protection Law by deceptively editing an interview with Kamala Harris. Last month the president expanded the lawsuit, whereby an additional claim was claimed on the basis of the Federal Lanham Act and $ 20 billion in compensation.
In an attempt to determine jurisdiction at the federal court in Texas, Trump also added Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Amarillo, as a co-requirement.
The company has submitted two motions to reject the case, one due to lack of jurisdiction and the other on the basis of the fact that the laws for consumer fraud do not arrange an editorial speech.
“This lawsuit is an insult to the first amendment and is without a basis in the law or facts,” wrote the company’s lawyers.
The lawsuit has been the subject of consternation within CBS, because Paramount has indicated that it is willing to settle with Trump. Partly the company is afraid that Trump’s instructed at the Federal Communications Commission will be able to hold the merger with Skydance.
The movements submitted on Thursday have established a powerful argument that the court case is an unconstitutional threat to free speech.
“If the first amendment means something, this means that officials such as plaintiffs cannot hold news organizations such as CBS who are liable for the simple exercise of editorial judgment,” the motion argues. “Whether the claimants believe that the very unprocessed interview should have been broadcast or should only be edited in a way they approve, they have no right under the first amendment to demand only news that suits their wishes.”
Trump submitted the court case to the Amarillo Federal Courthouse, where almost all cases are assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointed.
In the motion with regard to jurisdiction, Paramount argued that there is no reason why a judge in Texas would hear a lawsuit that was filed by Trump, a resident of Florida, against CBS, based in New York.
CBS sent two fragments from Harris’ answer to a question about Gaza. In the first broadcast, on ‘Face the Nation’, she gave a relatively cumbersome reaction. The clip that was used on “60 minutes” the next day was more concise. Trump has argued that CBS Harris wrongly wanted to portray as more coherent than she was by removing her “word salad” response.
Trump claims that the operation has violated the laws of the state and federal consumer fraud because they created confusion and came down to “unfair competition” with Truth Social, his social media platform.
CBS had submitted a similar motion to fire in December, but that was disputed when Trump changed his claim last month.