CBS moved on Friday to throw out Donald Trump‘s $10 billion lawsuit over the editing of Kamala Harris’ interview on “60 Minutes.”
Trump sued in the waning days of the presidential campaign, claiming that Harris’ interview had been deceptively edited to make her appear “coherent and decisive.”
In its motion to dismiss, CBS argued that does not amount to a legal claim, and that the First Amendment protects its right to edit news interviews.
“The First Amendment prevents holding CBS liable for editorial judgments the President may not like,” CBS’ lawyers argued, noting the network had every right to trim the vice president’s answer for time. “Such decisions are not subject to judicial second-guessing.”
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Trump sued under the Texas consumer fraud statute. His lawyers argued that as a “consumer” of CBS’s broadcast services, Trump and millions of others were deceived and misled by the Harris interview.
CBS countered that the law does not apply to news broadcasts, that Trump would have no standing to sue even if it did, that Trump was not actually confused by the interview, and therefore that he did not rely on it to his detriment.
“At every step, the claim stumbles,” CBS argued.
The network also noted that Trump’s claims of election interference are moot, since Trump won the election.
Trump filed the suit on Oct. 31 in the Amarillo Division of the Northern District of Texas, which has one judge: Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee.
CBS argued that the case should either be dismissed outright or at least transferred to the Southern District of New York, where CBS is headquartered, given the case has nothing to do with Texas.
A conservative group, the Center for American Rights, also filed a complaint about the Harris interview to the Federal Communications Commission. Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick to chair the FCC, has said the complaint likely will come up during consideration of the Skydance merger with Paramount Global, CBS’ parent company.