The New York Times Response To Donald Trump’s Lawsuit Threats Represents The Attitude We Need In This Election

Donald Trump has threatened to sue the New York Times for publishing the accounts of two women who claim to have been groped or assaulted by the Republican presidential candidate.

This is not the first attack Trump has made on the media at large. Since his campaign began, Trump has made repeated threats against reporters, news agencies, and even blacklisted publications from attending his events. However, the New York Times exposé appears to have angered him the most.

On Wednesday, the New York Times reported two women’s accounts, both of whom say they were inappropriately groped by Trump. The New York Times piece came on a wave of new allegations against the New York businessman turned presidential nominee, but Trump honed in on the New York Times piece in particular.

Trump initially responded on Twitter, his bullhorn of choice, to address the new allegations against him. Trump said, “The phony story in the failing @nytimes is a TOTAL FABRICATION. Written by same people as last discredited story on woman. WATCH!”

The phony story in the failing @nytimes is a TOTAL FABRICATION. Written by same people as last discredited story on women. WATCH!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2016

According to Politico, Trump continued his tirade against the New York Times at a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida where he went off-script and said, “these were nothing more than false smears,” “these claims are all fabricated,” and “these events never, ever happened.” Trump also hasn’t shied away from stating he believes his political opponent, Hillary Clinton, also had something to do with the new accusations.

Clearly outraged by the New York Times story, Trump did what he usually does when someone disagrees with him: he threatened to sue. On Wednesday night, the Republican nominee’s legal team at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP sent a letter to the New York Times demanding that the paper retract its “libelous” article.

Despite the threat, the New York Times has stood by its reporting and by the stories of the two women Trump allegedly assaulted. One woman was 22 when she worked for an office inside Trump’s building. While cornered in an elevator with Trump, the woman reported he relentlessly kissed her on the cheeks then on the mouth. The second woman reported that Trump groped her legs and breasts while he sat next to her on a first class flight in 1980.

Not only was the New York Times not intimidated by Trump’s legal threat, but the paper’s lawyers wrote a letter in response that argues the accusation of libel is unfounded. Considering Donald Trump has made numerous admissions of his own free will, including bragging about sexually assaulting women, the New York Times believes Trump doesn’t have a case simply based on the fact that his reputation is already so poor.

The letter from the Times’ lawyers stated, in part:

“The essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one’s reputation. Mr Trump has bragged about his non-consensual touching of women. He has bragged about intruding on beauty pageant contestants in their dressing room. He has acquiesced to a radio host’s request to discuss Mr. Trump’s own daughter as a ‘piece of a**… Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward to report on Mr. Trump’s unwanted advances. Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself.”

Because of the New York Times report, Trump has even begun lashing out at Times journalists. When Trump was asked for a comment about the article, the Howard Stern regular yelled that the reporter was disgusting human being, then kept repeating denials.

“I don’t do it. I don’t do it. It was locker room talk,” Trump sputtered.

When Donald Trump threatens legal action, he definitely follows through with it. Trump has been involved with more than 3,500 lawsuits, and he shows no sign of slowing down now. However, the New York Times remains unaffected by the businessman’s threat and promises to maintain its reporting.

[Photo by Evan Vucci/AP Photo]