The criminal cases against him have been falling like dominoes – but Donald Trump is still lawyered up and demanding recompense in the courts.
Trump is certainly not ready to drop his own lawsuit against the United States Government – where he is seeking $100 million over the FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago home that he called a ‘travesty of justice.’
And he has a handful of lawsuits cooking against media organizations – announcing plans to sue the Des Moines Register over a shock pre-election poll that had him in danger of losing the state (he won it).
‘We have to straighten out the press. Our press is very corrupt, almost as corrupt as our elections,’ Trump fumed at his Monday press conference at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump mentioned the lawsuit against DOJ, which he announced in August, during his Sunday appearance on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’
He did so while trashing FBI Director Chris Wray, who announced in a surprise statement Wednesday that he was resigning his post before the end of his term rather than waiting to be fired by Trump.
‘Well, I can’t say I’m thrilled with him. He invaded my home. I’m suing the country over it. He invaded Mar-a-Lago. I’m very unhappy with the things he — he’s done, and crime is at an all time high,’ Trump complained.
His team doubled down when asked if the suit would would continue even after Trump becomes the head of the government he is suing.
‘President Trump will continue to hold accountable those who broke the law in the illegal and unconstitutional raid on his home of Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. The Harris – Biden era of partisan lawfare is over. It is time to end the weaponization of our system of justice and Make America Great Again,’ transition spokesman Steven Cheung told DailyMail.com.
The FBI search came in August 2022 as the government was assembling its classified documents case against Trump, as agents swept through his private quarters in search of government materials and national security documents.
Trump brought up the lawsuit while teeing off on Wray in a response to a question about whether he would fire him and install Kash Patel to lead the Bureau.
His response made clear he is not ready to let bygones be bygones with the FBI. Some legal experts have already predicted the effort will be dismissed.
Nor has Trump dropped his suit against CBS over its ’60 Minutes’ interview with rival Vice President Kamala Harris during the campaign. He revealed that that suit, too, is still on his mind, while blasting an Iowa poll he called ‘dishonest.’
It is one of several lawsuits he has filed against media organizations. Critics warn the pattern is certain continue now that ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million to a non-profit for a Trump presidential center in a settlement where the company admitted ‘regret’ over a George Stephanopoulos interview where the host said he had been ‘found liable for rape.’ (A jury found he was liable for sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll).
Trump brought up the lawsuit in an interview with ‘Time’ Magazine, which named him ‘Person of the Year.’
‘I didn’t think I was going to lose. I thought it was a dishonest poll, and we’re going to probably prove that because, you know, we’re taking people to court because we think – I think – we have an obligation to,’ Trump said.
‘When “60 Minutes” interviews my opponent, and that’s a news program, that’s their most important news program, and she gave a really horrible answer. That was a bad answer. And they took that answer and replaced it, and this is her speaking, and they replaced it with another answer from a half an hour later in the interview that had nothing to do, but it was a much better answer. That’s really dishonest.’
‘President Trump will continue to hold those who have committed, and are committing wrongdoings, accountable for blatantly false and dishonest reporting, which serves no public interest and only seeks to interfere in our elections on behalf of political partisans,’ Cheung told DailyMail.com.
Trump on Monday called the CBS report ‘grossly incompetent’ as well as ‘weird.’
Trump’s lawyers filed a complaint in November accusing CBS of ‘partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public.’
CBS called the accusation ‘false.’ It said during footage it aired of its interview with Harris that it gave a longer segment of Harris that ‘Face the Nation’ used, with a shorter one used on ’60 Minutes.’
On Monday Trump also mentioned an existing lawsuit against famed author Watergate reporter Bob Woodward, after Woodward published taped interviews he conducted with Trump.
‘He sold the tapes, which he wasn’t allowed to do. He could only use them for reporting purposes, not for sale purposes,’ Trump wrote. He predicted his team would be ‘successful on that one.’
Trump also mentioned his suit against the board that awards the Pulitzer Prize. He dismissively referenced an award to the New York Times and Washington Post ‘for their wonderful , accurate and highly professional reporting on the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax,’ which he called ‘hoax.’
A state judge in Florida ruled this summer that the case could proceed to the discovery phase when parties grant depositions.