Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has sued The New York Times for libel, accusing the newspaper of knowingly publishing “false and defamatory statements” about an alleged conspiracy with Russia in a March 2019 opinion piece.
A complaint filed in Manhattan state court on Wednesday said the US newspaper falsely claimed that Mr Trump’s campaign had an “overarching deal” with “Vladimir Putin’s oligarchy” to help defeat 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in which Mr Trump would offer favourable foreign policy decisions, including relief for Moscow from US sanctions.
Campaign lawyers said not only were such statements incorrect, they had been previously debunked by the Times’s own reporting.