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President Donald Trump has threatened to sue CNN and The New York Times over their reporting on a leaked intelligence assessment that appeared to undercut his claims about the effectiveness of recent U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump, who authorized missile strikes on three locations in Iran last weekend, sent legal letters to both news outlets on Wednesday. The letters, written by his personal attorney, accused the outlets of publishing false and defamatory information, demanding a retraction and apology for what the attorney described as “unpatriotic” coverage.
The strikes, which sought to damage Iran’s nuclear program, prompted a brief retaliatory response from Tehran. According to CNN and The New York Times, early intelligence suggested the bombings may have delayed Iran’s nuclear progress by only a few months. The Trump administration has publicly claimed that the attacks significantly crippled Iran’s capabilities.
The New York Times reported Thursday that both outlets rejected the demands from Trump’s legal team.
“No retraction is needed,” said David McCraw, legal counsel for The New York Times. “No apology will be forthcoming. We told the truth to the best of our ability. We will continue to do so.”
McCraw noted that the information cited in the article was described as preliminary, consistent with the administration’s own acknowledgment of the intelligence’s initial nature.
“While the Trump administration protests that the assessments were only preliminary — which, by the way, was the second word of our article — and that later assessments may come to different conclusions, no one in the administration disputes that the first assessments said exactly what the article said they did,” McCraw wrote. “[Which is] the destruction caused by the raid was not as significant as the president’s remarks suggested.”
The legal threats followed Trump’s public criticism of CNN correspondent Natasha Bertrand, who co-authored the original report. In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump called for her firing.
“Natasha Bertrand should be FIRED from CNN! I watched her for three days doing Fake News. She should be IMMEDIATELY reprimanded, and then thrown out ‘like a dog.’ She lied on the Laptop from Hell Story, and now she lied on the Nuclear Sites Story, attempting to destroy our Patriot Pilots by making them look bad when, in fact, they did a GREAT job and hit ‘pay dirt’ — TOTAL OBLITERATION!” Trump wrote.
“She should not be allowed to work at Fake News CNN. It’s people like her who destroyed the reputation of a once great Network. Her slant was so obviously negative, besides, she doesn’t have what it takes to be an on camera correspondent, not even close. FIRE NATASHA!” he added.
