The Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG) filed the lawsuit Monday in the Twelfth Circuit Court in Sarasota County, Florida.
Donald Trump files lawsuit against 20 media outlets – full list
Former President Donald Trump’s organization, which owns the social media platform Truth Social, sued Newsweek and 20 other media outlets, saying reports of its losses defamed the company.
The lawsuit refers to reports that the company has lost $73 million since its founding, calling it “pure fabrication.”
The complaint filed Monday included Newsweek, the Hollywood Reporter, the New York Daily News, MSNBC, CNBC, Forbes, Axios and Reuters.
The owner of The Hill, Rolling Stone magazine, the owner and editor of the Miami Herald newspaper and British newspapers such as The Guardian and Daily Mail are on the list.
Several online-only publications, such as Mediaite, Salon, Benzinga, Daily Beast, MarketWatch, Gizmodo, and Deadline Hollywood, are mentioned.
The complaint highlights one count of defamation and one count of prejudicial lying. In addition to an injunction “prohibiting the publication or republication of defamatory statements,” it demands $1.5 billion in damages. A jury trial is also requested.
The company’s lawyers claimed that the information disseminated in different media channels was part of an “unprecedented and apparently coordinated media campaign,” citing that each of the outlets “reported the same false number within approximately 24 hours from each other, each citing a public security agency. and the Exchange Commission (“SEC”) filing, in which the mysterious loss of $73 million appears nowhere.
The company said: “This was a coordinated effort to damage TMTG’s reputation, degrade the company’s financial condition, freeze its access to capital and torpedo the planned merger between Digital World Acquisition Corporation (“DWAC”) and TMTG. »
M&A company DWAC and TMTG have been planning a merger since October 2021, but there have been several missed deadlines in the deal.
Although the deal appears to have profitable potential, DWAC raised concerns in the SEC filing about TMTG’s ability to have “sufficient funds to meet its debts as they become due.”
The deal aims to provide the Truth Social platform with a solid financial foundation to help it compete with a growing number of social media platforms.
The financial operations of each company were summarized in a Nov. 13 SEC filing by DWAC. It revealed that Truth Social had net sales of $1.4 million in 2022 but an operating loss of $23 million.
With $2.3 million in net sales, it reported an operating loss of $7.6 million for the first half of 2023.
According to the release, between the start of its operations on February 8, 2021 and June 30, 2023, TMTG suffered a net loss of $31.5 million.
Truth Social released a statement when the $73 million figure was initially made public.
It said: “Unsurprisingly, Fake News defames Truth Social, reports completely false information and ignores that yesterday’s filing was a crucial step toward finalizing our proposed merger. »
A few media sites involved in the lawsuit updated their articles to remove the $73 million estimate.
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