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Trump claims in his lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that CNN had used its considerable
influence as a leading news organization to defeat him
politically.
CNN declined to comment on the case.
Trump, a Republican, claims in the 29-page lawsuit that CNN had
a long track record of criticizing him but had ramped up its
attacks in recent months because the network feared that he
would run again for president in 2024.
"As a part of its concerted effort to tilt the political balance
to the left, CNN has tried to taint the Plaintiff with a series
of ever-more scandalous, false, and defamatory labels of
'racist,' 'Russian lackey,' 'insurrectionist,' and ultimately
'Hitler,'" the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit lists several instances in which CNN appeared to
compare Trump to Hitler, including a January 2022 special report
by host Fareed Zakaria that included footage of the German
dictator.
Trump, who in 2020 lost a re-election bid to Democrat Joe Biden,
has not said whether he would seek re-election.
In a statement, the former president said he would be filing
lawsuits against other major media companies "in the coming
weeks and months," and that he could even take action against a
congressional committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the
U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
The lawsuit comes as the 76-year-old former president faces
considerable legal woes, including a criminal investigation by
the U.S. Justice Department for retaining government records at
his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida after leaving office in January
2021.
Trump was sued last month by New York state Attorney General
Leticia James, who has accused him of lying to banks and
insurers over the value of his assets.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Additional reporting by Kanishka
Singh and Tim Ahmann;Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Chris Reese)
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