A release issued by the campaign indicates that the lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the New York State Supreme Court and ultimately "aims to hold the news organization accountable for intentionally publishing false statements against President Trump's campaign."
The article at the center of the lawsuit was published by the Times on March 27, 2019. Written by Max Frankel, the opinion piece was published under the headline "The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo." Frankel acted as the executive editor of the Times from 1986 to 1994.
— Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@TeamTrump) February 26, 2020
"Today the President's re-election campaign filed suit against the New York Times for falsely stating the Campaign had an 'overarching deal' with 'Vladimir Putin's oligarchy' to 'help the campaign against Hillary Clinton' in exchange for 'a new pro-Russian foreign policy, starting with relief from ... economic sanctions,'" Jenna Ellis, the senior legal adviser to the reelection campaign, said in a statement attached to the release.
"The statements were and are 100 percent false and defamatory. The complaint alleges The Times was aware of the falsity at the time it published them, but did so for the intentional purpose of hurting the campaign, while misleading its own readers in the process."
The campaign is seeking millions of dollars in damages.
