American Bar Association censored damning report on Donald Trump's attempts to sue critics

Donald Trump appears in court
(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

A committee of media lawyers at the American Bar Association (ABA) commissioned a report on Donald Trump's use of libel lawsuits, real and threatened, and veteran First Amendment lawyer and former journalist Susan E. Seager returned with an article titled "Donald J. Trump Is a Libel Bully but Also a Libel Loser." The ABA declined to publish the report in the committee's journal as written, The New York Times reports, and one of its reasons was "the risk of the ABA being sued by Mr. Trump."

Seager studied seven cases in which Trump and his companies filed lawsuits pertaining to free speech; Trump lost four, withdrew two, and in the final case obtained a default judgment in private arbitration after the former beauty contest participant failed to appear in court. "Donald J. Trump is a libel bully," the report begins. "Like most bullies, he's also a loser, to borrow from Trump's vocabulary." But while "journalists and whistleblowers" won in court, it noted, that came "at significant cost of time, energy, and money."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.