Trump DOES the UNTHINKABLE in NEW PLOT

Brian Kabateck and Shant Karnikian dissect the 11th Circuit's dismissal of Trump's $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN over the network's use of "Big Lie" to describe his 2020 election fraud claims. The three-judge panel unanimously ruled Trump's arguments were "meritless," "unpersuasive," and "untenable"—with two of the three judges being Trump's own appointees (Judges Kevin Newsom and Elizabeth Branch, joined by Obama appointee Adalberto Jordan). District Judge Raag Singhal, also a Trump appointee, initially dismissed the case in 2023, finding CNN's statements were protected opinion, not false statements of fact. Trump argued "Big Lie" falsely linked him to Hitler and Nazi propaganda techniques described in Mein Kampf, but the court held the phrase is "susceptible to multiple subjective interpretations" and "not readily capable of being proven true or false." Brian explains the actual malice standard for public figures requires proving the media outlet knew statements were false and published them anyway to cause harm—Trump failed to meet this constitutional threshold. The hosts note Trump was represented by Lindsey Halligan (the "third runner-up to Miss Colorado" who became interim US Attorney in Eastern District of Virginia and indicted Comey and Letitia James) at trial court, then Alejandro Brito from Coral Gables on appeal. This marks Trump's second major 11th Circuit loss in days, following the Hillary Clinton RICO lawsuit dismissal. Shant emphasizes the irony that Trump's own judicial appointees are rejecting his frivolous lawsuits, undermining his "activist judge" excuse. Kabateck LLP: Call 1-844-74-CIVIL for a free case evaluation or visit us at https://www.kbklawyers.com/ Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@LegalAFMTN?sub_confirmation=1 Legal AF Substack: https://substack.com/@legalaf Follow Legal AF on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/legalafmtn.bsky.social Follow Michael Popok on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mspopok.bsky.social Subscribe to the Legal AF by MeidasTouch podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/legal-af-by-meidastouch/id1580828595