Former US President Donald Trump has sued the news channel CNN for $475 million in damages for defamation.
According to the lawsuit filed in a US district court in Florida on Monday, the TV broadcaster fears that he will run for president again in 2024 and therefore wants to conduct a campaign of "defamation and slander" against him.
In a further statement on Monday (local time), Trump announced that he and his lawyers may also be suing "a large number of other fake news media companies" in the coming weeks and months - particularly regarding coverage of the 2020 US presidential election.
In the lawsuit against CNN, the former president specifically objected to the network calling its claim that the 2020 election was “stolen” by Democrat Joe Biden a “big lie.”
Trump said the legal action was intended to "defend his reputation as a dedicated public servant and establish CNN's liability for damaging his reputation with the false, libelous and inflammatory misrepresentations made about him."
Trump's lawyers wrote in the 29-page lawsuit that the broadcaster had "tried to use its massive influence - allegedly as a 'trustworthy' news source - to defame the plaintiff in the minds of its viewers and readers in order to defeat him politically." .
Trump also accused CNN of involvement in a "concerted action to tilt the political balance to the left."
The broadcaster allegedly tried to smear him with numerous "increasingly scandalous, false and defamatory labels such as 'racist', 'Russian lackey', 'rioter' and finally 'Hitler'".
Trump had previously threatened to sue CNN if the broadcaster refused to withdraw the allegedly defamatory statements about him.
However, according to the lawsuit, the broadcaster declined to withdraw its coverage.
During his tenure, Trump repeatedly railed against CNN and other media on social networks, which he described as “fake news”.