Cruz on Trump Lawsuit: ‘Truth Is an Absolute Defense’ in Defamation Suits

‘His sister has an extreme left wing record on the issue of abortion’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

“By threatening that if we will not pull down the ad that Mr. Trump will seek immediate legal action to prevent the continued broadcast of this ad. And to hold me jointly and severally liable to the fullest extent of the law for any damages resulting there from. You know, I have to say to Mr. Trump, you have been threatening frivolous lawsuits for your entire adult life. Even in the annals of frivolous lawsuits, this takes the cake. So, Donald, I would encourage you, if you want to file a lawsuit challenging this ad, claiming it is defamation, file the lawsuit. It is a remarkable contention that an ad that plays video of Donald Trump speaking on national television is somehow defamation. The opera tiff words in that ad come from Donald Trump’s own mouth. 

And I understand if a candidate has a record like Donald Trump’s how he could consider anyone pointing to his actual record being defamation. But if Donald Trump files the lawsuit that he threatens in this letter, that lawsuit will be frivolous and it will result in both Donald Trump and any lawyer that signs his name to the pleadings being sanctioned in court for filing frivolous litigation. But before the lawsuit ends in sanctions for Mr. Trump, it will be important to try the merits of case. Now, any first-year law student can tell you in a defamation case, truth is an absolute defense. Which means the substance of the case will be whether or not Donald Trump has, in fact, been pro-choice. Now, I would note actually in the ad, we don’t say Donald is pro-choice. We simply play video of him saying he is very pro-choice and he is pro-choice in every respect. But, if Mr. Trump follows through on his threat to file this defamation lawsuit, there are at least four data points that will be relevant in litigating this lawsuit. Number one, the Tim Rhusert interview. His own words said on national television are a matter of public record and by definition repeating someone’s own words cannot be defamation. And once again, what he said on national television is that he is very pro-choice. 

He would not ban partial birth abortion and he is pro-choice in every respect. A second data point that would surely be relevant, is Mr. Trump’s statement in August of 2015, that he believes his sister would make a, quote, phenomenal supreme court justice. Now, who is his sister? His sister is a court of appeals judge appointed by Bill Clinton. His sister has an extreme left wing record on the issue of abortion.”

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