Trump Still Has No Clue About Libel Laws
It's a day of the week that ends in y, so that means that President Trump must be upset about the media again. This week he's sounding a familiar theme: That he's going to do something about libel laws. And, like every time he's made these comments before, he's showing that he's as idiotic as he is thin-skinned.
This started almost two years ago, when on the campaign trail President Trump promised, if elected, to "open up our libel laws." He was, as he still is, upset about newspapers and others in the media who "write purposely negative and horrible and false articles." He wanted, and still does, to be able to sue them "and win lots of money."
As anyone who follows the news knows, Trump has continued to rail against the media throughout his presidency, but this has taken on new relevance in light of the publication of Michael Wolff's Fire and Fury. The president demanded the book not be published and has threatened to sue now that it has.
Rather than let the firestorm around the book peter out on its own, Trump has continued in his crusade against both the book and the media generally. In doing so, he went back to his favorite topic, libel laws. "Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness. So we're going to take a strong look at that. You can't say things that are false, knowingly false and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account."
As with every other time he's talked about libel laws, Trump again proved that he has absolutely no clue what he's talking about. It's impossible to overstate how idiotic these comments are for one simple reason: the president has nothing to do with American libel law.
This is the stuff of Law 101. Libel laws allow people to sue for written defamatory comments. Every state has its own body of law around libel. In contrast, the federal government has no law governing libel. This is one of those many areas of law – like almost all aspects of personal injury law – that the federal government has no say over. Rather, libel law is controlled by the law of 50 different states.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/trump-still-has-no-clue-about-libel-laws-w515331?utm_source=rsnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=011118_12
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