ICYMI: NYT: “Trump Threatens Suit Over Report He Doesn’t Like, Aiming to Intimidate a Critic”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, August 21, 2026
Washington, D.C. – Today, The New York Times reported on Trump’s latest efforts “aiming to intimidate a critic," with the threat of a defamation lawsuit against the Center for American Progress following their release of a report that found his deployment of the National Guard to cities did not reduce violent crime.
“Donald Trump is a wannabe dictator wielding every ounce of power he has to silence anyone who questions or shows his administration’s actions for what they are: a massive failure,” said Cole Leiter, Executive Director of Americans Against Government Censorship. “These threats against the Center for American Progress are the latest actions in his escalating agenda to weaponize the government against opponents and silence dissent.”
Read the highlights below:
NYT: Trump Threatens Suit Over Report He Doesn’t Like, Aiming to Intimidate a Critic
President Trump has opened a new front in his campaign to intimidate political foes, threatening a prominent liberal think tank with a $5 billion defamation lawsuit over a report concluding that his deployment of the National Guard to cities across the country has had little effect on reducing violent crime.
The threats against the think tank, the Center for American Progress, were Mr. Trump’s latest effort to use the legal system to punish critics for voicing unflattering facts and opinions generally protected by the First Amendment. And while it is unclear how far any suit the president might ultimately file will get in court, it could force the organization to spend money fighting it off and make it even more of a target of his allies and supporters.
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Mr. Trump has often lashed out at scholars and commentators for reproaching or critiquing him in the news media. And since winning re-election, he has filed a flurry of lawsuits against news organizations like the BBC and The Times, claiming they defamed him. He has even filed suit against the Des Moines Register, arguing that a poll the paper published before the 2024 election indicating that he would lose the vote in Iowa amounted to consumer fraud and election interference.
The president has repeatedly claimed that his administration is the most transparent in American history. But he and his aides have used lawsuits and executive actions to go after law firms, universities and television networks. They have also used criminal tactics such as search warrants and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to pry loose sensitive information from reporters.
Many of these efforts have faltered once they reached court and faced judicial scrutiny. Mr. Brito himself has filed multiple failed suits on behalf of Mr. Trump. Last month, a federal judge in Florida referred Mr. Brito for potential disciplinary proceedings after ruling that a suit he filed for the president against the Internal Revenue Service amounted to an improper exercise in self-dealing.
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