Published 1 hour ago • loading... • Updated 31 minutes ago
Trump threatens lawsuit against nonprofit that questioned whether National Guard plan lessened crime
CAP said it will not retract the report as Trump’s lawyer demanded a personal apology and warned of a $5 billion defamation suit.
President Donald Trump is threatening a $5 billion defamation lawsuit against the Center for American Progress unless it retracts a National Guard report by 5 p.m. Friday, according to Trump's personal lawyer Alejandro Brito.
The CAP report, published July 13, concluded there is "no compelling evidence that these deployments reduced homicides, violent crime, or gun violence," prompting Trump to call the analysis "another Radical Left SCAM" on social media.
Supporting the findings, a Reuters investigation found National Guard soldiers were mentioned in just 1.3% of cases brought before the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, while CAP lawyer Kevin H. Metz called the threat "utterly absurd."
Rejecting the retraction demand, CAP President Neera Tanden vowed the organization would "neither cower nor bend" in the face of what she called a "transparent attempt to silence us."
Experts note that such legal threats often aim to push opponents into submission rather than address merits, reflecting Trump's broader pattern of using the legal system to intimidate critics and media outlets over unfavorable coverage.