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Trump considers suing social media influencers for

defamation

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Trump has already sued ABC News, which settled, and CBS

News

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Legal experts warn of chilling effect on news coverage

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Lawsuits by Trump would still face steep hurdles in court

By Helen Coster and Jack Queen

NEW YORK, Dec 17 (Reuters) - President-elect Donald

Trump on Monday stepped up his legal threats against news

outlets and said he would also consider suing social media

influencers and others for defamation, two days after ABC News

agreed to settle a lawsuit with him.

"It costs a lot of money to do it, but we have to straighten

out the press," Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Some legal experts say Trump's comments and legal actions

risk chilling news coverage of the incoming administration even

if legal protections for journalists are for now robust.

"There is some serious concern that the erosion of legal

protections could lead to less aggressive news coverage," said

Syracuse University communications professor Roy Gutterman.

He pointed to the ABC settlement as a possible example of a

news organization fearing retribution from the Trump

administration, noting that the high cost of litigation could

have also influenced the network's decision.

On Dec. 14, Walt Disney ( DIS )-owned ABC News agreed to

give $15 million to Trump's presidential library to settle a

lawsuit over comments that anchor George Stephanopoulos made on

air.

The comments involved the civil cases brought against Trump

by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of sexually

assaulting her at a New York department store in the 1990s.

Stephanopoulos said Trump was found liable for rape, but a

jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse. New York law

distinguishes the two offences.

Trump is appealing the jury verdict in that case and a

judge's ruling in a related lawsuit brought by Carroll.

An ABC News spokesperson said in a statement that the

network was pleased that the parties reached an agreement to

dismiss the lawsuit.

As part of the settlement, ABC agreed to publish an editor's

note stating that the network and Stephanopoulos "regret

statements regarding President Donald J. Trump" made during the

interview in question.

In his remarks to reporters on Monday, Trump threatened to

sue the Des Moines Register over a poll the paper oversaw, which

showed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump in

Iowa shortly before Election Day.

Trump said of the poll, "it was a fraud and it was election

interference."

Des Moines Register spokesperson Lark-Marie Anton said in a

statement that the paper has acknowledged the poll did not

accurately reflect Trump's ultimate margin of victory but stands

by its reporting and believes a lawsuit would be meritless.

On Monday Trump also mentioned his lawsuit against CBS News

over an interview with Harris that aired on its "60 Minutes"

news program in October. The lawsuit, which seeks $1 billion in

damages, claimed that the interview had been deceptively edited.

CBS has said the suit is "completely without merit" and has

asked a judge to dismiss the case.

Trump claimed on Monday that "60 Minutes" participated in

"fraud and election interference."

TARGETING LEGAL PROTECTIONS FOR JOURNALISTS

Any lawsuits by Trump would still face steep hurdles in

court because U.S. law has some of the strongest protections in

the world for news coverage of public figures.

Longstanding legal precedent holds that public figures must

prove defendants knew or strongly suspected something was false

but said it anyway, a standard known as "actual malice" that is

notoriously difficult to prove in court.

Trump has said this legal standard should be changed, and

some U.S. Supreme Court justices have expressed willingness to

reexamine the precedent.

"The standard remains a strong one, the strongest in the

western world," said Boston School of Law professor Jeffrey

Pyle.

Even if lawsuits by Trump were to fail, they could create

headaches for news organizations by publicly revealing

potentially embarrassing internal communications and exposing

journalists and executives to depositions.

In the ABC lawsuit, some legal experts said the network could

have prevailed because Stephanopoulos' comments appeared to be

an innocent mistake and not the type of reckless disregard that

Trump would have to prove.

A judge denied ABC's motion to dismiss the case in July,

rejecting the network's claim that it was broadly protected

under Florida laws shielding news organizations from liability

for accurate reporting on information received from government

officials.

That order only concerned several initial legal questions

and did not mean Trump would have ultimately won.