CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said Friday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal will be “thrown out at its beginnings.”
Guest-host Jim Sciutto said, “Jeff, of course, the other issue, the president is suing suing The Wall Street Journal here for libel to the tune of $20 billion. I imagine that’s a figure that, you know, somewhat manufactured out of the blue. Is this a case with legal substance?”
Toobin said, “To use a technical legal term Jim, that Wall Street Journal article was lawyered up the wazoo. I mean, it is quite clear they were concerned about a lawsuit and they did everything possible to make themselves bulletproof from a lawsuit. Donald Trump is a public figure. This is a matter of public importance. Unless The Wall Street Journal made up this book from scratch, which, knowing The Wall Street Journal, I think is impossible, there is no chance that this lawsuit can succeed. If it gets to depositions, which I doubt. I think it will be dismissed before then, but if it gets to depositions before then, Donald Trump is opening himself up to a sworn deposition about the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, something I imagine he probably doesn’t want to get into. But I think in a perverse way, it will be helpful to him that this case is thrown out at its beginnings because under the libel law as it exists today, that is surely what’s going to happen.”
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