«Breaking Pic News» Trump says Congress should change libel laws and blasts Woodward after bombshell book revelations

Donald Trump reacted Wednesday to the publication of the newest mud-dragging book about his presidency the same way he did the last one: by musing publicly that stronger libel laws should have prevented it.

'Isn’t it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up stories and form a picture of a person that is literally the exact opposite of the fact, and get away with it without retribution or cost. Don’t know why Washington politicians don’t change libel laws?' Trump tweeted following initial news coverage of 'Fear,' a book by famed Watergate reporter Bob Woodward.

Libel, the act of publishing false and defamatory material about specific people or institutions, is typically adjudicated at the state level.

That means Trump would need to persuade state legislatures to tighten their existing statutes in order to generate a meaningful change.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday hinted at the herculean task of changing America's libel laws, following initial revelations from a critical book by Bob Woodward

Trump wrote on Twitter that he doesn't 'know why Washington politicians don't change libel laws' – ignoring the fact that state laws, not federal laws, generally address libel

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders wouldn't take the bait and dodged a question on 'Good Morning America' about whether the claims in Woodward's book 'Fear' amount to libel

Minutes after the president tweeted about libel, his press secretary was slapping at Woodward more gently in a 'Good Morning America' interview.

'We've seen a few excerepts that have been pretty widely pushed back on by some of the most-respected people in our country,' Sarah Sanders said in response to a question about whether the author had libeled Trump. 'We'll see what happens.'

In January the famously litigious president railed against author Michael Wolff following publication of 'Fire and Fury,' saying he planned to 'take a strong look' at reforming America's libel laws.

'Fear' is the third deeply sourced anti-Trump book of the year, following tomes by Michael Wolff and Omarosa Manigault-Newman

He said at the time that he wanted a path for courtroom consequences 'when somebody says something that is false and defamatory about someone.'

'Our current libel laws are a sham and a disgrace and do not represent American values or American fairness. ... You can't say things that are false, knowingly false, and be able to smile as money pours into your bank account,' he said then.

Trump had already hinted multiple times in the past, both as a candidate and as president, that he would like to make it easier to push back against media outlets that he believes treat him unfairly.

In March 2017 he specifically went after The New York Times in a tweet, saying it had 'disgraced the media world.'

'Gotten me wrong for two solid years. Change libel laws?' he asked.

His specific beefs with Woodward's reporting include stern denials that he ever called attorney general Jeff Sessions 'mentally retarded'.

Trump charged on Tuesday that Woodward may have fabricated parts of his book, and former George W. Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer said in a tweet that the charges didn't add up

AMERICA'S LIBEL LAWS THAT TRUMP LOVES TO HATE

Most statutes allowing Americans to sue for libel and defamation are state laws, but the definition of libel is largely the same everywhere in the U.S.

Libel is the act of publishing a false statement about someone that harms them or their reputation. 

In most states it's considered a 'civil tort,' not a crime, which means a newspaper, author or broadcaster can be hauled into court to face a lawsuit filed by the victim.

But 17 states do have criminal statutes prohibiting defamation. 

In general, ordinary people only need to prove that a statement of fact was false in order to win a libel case.

But so-called 'public figures' – which can range from the President of the United States to practically anyone with a Wikipedia profile – have a higher burden of proof called 'actual malice.'

That means proving that the writer or broadcaster knew in advance that a statement was wrong and recklessly published it anyway.

How that is any different from what Trump said he wanted is hard to tell. 

He said: 'If somebody says something that's totally false and knowingly false, that the person that has been abused, defamed, libeled, [should] have meaningful recourse.'

The key word is 'knowingly' which is precisely the 'actual malice' test set by the courts.

Most states allow people who are libeled by a news outlet or other publisher to demand a formal retraction. If that happens, they lose the right to sue. 

However, in many cases such a correction is one of the demands a lawsuit makes – along with money. 

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides for freedom of speech and freedom of the press, setting a high bar for plaintiffs to prove they were defamed.

That also restricts Congress from passing federal libel laws that might override state laws. 

'The already discredited Woodward book, so many lies and phony sources, has me calling Jeff Sessions "mentally retarded" and "a dumb southerner". I said NEITHER, never used those terms on anyone, including Jeff, and being a southerner is a GREAT thing. He made this up to divide!' he tweeted Tuesday.

Trump also tweeted statements from John Kelly and James Mattis that refuted other parts of Woodward's book, which alleges that Kelly called Trump an 'idiot' and Mattis compared him to a 'fifth grader.'

'The Woodward book has already been refuted and discredited by General (Secretary of Defense) James Mattis and General (Chief of Staff) John Kelly. Their quotes were made up frauds, a con on the public. Likewise other stories and quotes. Woodward is a Dem operative? Notice timing?' the president wrote.

Trump first raised the idea of libel law reform during a February 2016 campaign rally in Fort Worth, Texas, warning the Times and The Washington Post that 'we're going to open up those libel laws, folks, and we're going to have people sue you like you never got sued before.'

The president has gone after media outlets in the past, suggesting that changing libel laws would help him fight back against 'fake news' coverage

Highlights: The most searing quotes in Bob Woodward's book

WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT TRUMP:

JOHN KELLY, CHIEF OF STAFF: 'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.'

JAMES MATTIS, DEFENSE SECRETARY:  'Fifth- or sixth-grader'

REX TILLERSON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: 'He's a f***ing moron.'

JOHN DOWN, FORMER PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'F***ing liar.'

JOHN DOWD ON HOW TRANSCRIPT OF A MUELLER INTERVIEW WOULD BE DESCRIBED BY FOREIGN LEADERS: 'I told you he was an idiot. I told you he was a goddamn dumbbell. What are we dealing with this idiot for?'

GARY COHN, FORMER CHIEF ECONOMIC ADVISER: 'A professional liar'  

ROB PORTER, FORMER STAFF SECRETARY WHO QUIT WHEN BOTH EX-WIVES ACCUSED HIM OF ABUSE: 'A third of my job was trying to react to some of the really dangerous ideas that he had and try to give him reasons to believe that maybe they weren't such good ideas.'

WHAT THEY SAID TO EACH OTHER:

STEVE BANNON TO IVANKA TRUMP: 'You're nothing but a f***ing staffer! You walk around this place and act like you're on charge, and you're not. You're on staff!'

IVANKA TRUMP TO STEVE BANNON: 'I'm not a staffer!  I'll never be a staffer. I'm the first daughter and I'm never going to be a staffer!'

JOHN KELLY TO GARY COHN:  'If that was me, I would have taken that resignation letter and shoved it up his a** six different times.'

DOWD TO ROBERT MUELLER: 'He just made something up. That's his nature.'     

WHAT TRUMP SAID ABOUT THEM:

BARACK OBAMA: 'Weak d**k' 

RUDY GIULIANI, PERSONAL ATTORNEY: 'Rudy, you're a baby. I've never seen a worse defense of me in my life. They took your diaper off right there. You're like a little baby that needed to be changed. When are you going to be a man?' 

WILBUR ROSS, COMMERCE SECRETARY:  'I don't trust you. I don't want you doing any more negotiations. You're past your prime.'  

H.R McMASTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: 'Dresses like a beer salesman.'

REINCE PRIEBUS, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF: 'Like a little rat. He just scurries around.'

AFTER EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT FATAH AL-SISSI ASKED IF HE WAS GOING TO BE AROUND: 'Like a kick in the nuts.'

BASHAR AL-ASSAD, SYRIAN DICTATOR: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them.'

'If I become president – oh, do they have problems,' he told 8,000 screaming fans.

'And one of the things I'm gonna do ... I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money,' Trump boasted.

'We're going to open up those libel laws. So that when The New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected.'

Most state laws set a tough standard for proving libel against public figures like Trump.

Cases filed by ordinary Americans can be won on the basis of whether or not a statement is false when it's published.

But public figures have to prove 'actual malice' – meaning that a news outlet knew a statement was false when it published it, and that it intended to cause harm to its target.

Woodward's book portrays the president as an impetuous and sometimes vicious boss who repeatedly ripped into Attorney General Jeff Sessions after he decided to to recuse himself from the Justice Department's Russia probe.

The president allegedly called him a 'traitor' and vented: 'This guy is mentally retarded. He's this dumb Southerner. … He couldn't even be a one-person country lawyer down in Alabama.'

Woodward quoted White House Chief of Staff John Kelly slamming Trump after he blew a fuse during a meeting.

'He's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails,' Kelly said, in Woodward's telling. 'We're in Crazytown. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had.' 

Kelly fired back at the claims, saying in a statement: 'The idea that I ever called the President is not true, in fact it's exactly the opposite. ... This is both a pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from his many successes.'

In another episode described in 'Fear,' Trump questioned the utility of U.S. early warning systems in Alaska to identify a nuclear attack from North Korea.

When Trump asked about it, Defense Secretary Mattis schooled him: 'We're doing this in order to prevent World War III.'

Mattis later told colleagues Trump had the mental ability of 'a fifth- or sixth-grader,' acording to Woodward's sources.

On Tuesday he denied the account, saying: 'The contemptuous words about the President attributed to me in Woodward's book were never uttered by me or in my presence. While I generally enjoy reading fiction, this is a uniquely Washington brand of literature, and his anonymous sources do not lend credibility.' 

A Pentagon spokesman, Col. Rob Manning, said Woodward never interviewed Mattis.

'Mr. Woodward never discussed or verified the alleged quotes included in his book with Secretary Mattis' or anyone within the Defense Department, Manning said. 

Previous accounts during Trump's first year had former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson calling Trump a 'moron,' a charge he did not explicitly deny.

Woodward also reported that after Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a chemical weapons attack on civilians in April 2017, Trump told Mattis he wanted the Syrian leader taken out, saying: 'Let's f***ing kill him! Let's go in. Let's kill the f***ing lot of them'

Mattis assured Trump he would work on it, but then told a senior aide they'd do nothing of the kind, Woodward writes. National security advisers instead developed options for a more modest airstrike that Trump ultimately ordered.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley denied Tuesday that Trump had ever planned to assassinate Assad. She told reporters at the U.N. headquarters that she had been privy to conversations about the Syrian chemical weapons attacks, 'and I have not once ever heard the president talk about assassinating Assad.'

She said people should take what is written in books about the president with 'a grain of salt.'

Link hienalouca.com

https://hienalouca.com/2018/09/05/trump-says-congress-should-change-libel-laws-and-blasts-woodward-after-bombshell-book-revelations/
Main photo article Donald Trump reacted Wednesday to the publication of the newest mud-dragging book about his presidency the same way he did the last one: by musing publicly that stronger libel laws should have prevented it.
‘Isn’t it a shame that someone can write an article or book, totally make up s...

It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.

Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.

Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca





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