Trump threatens New York Times and CNN with trials, following the revelations on US attack in Iran / “The American public has the right to know”, say the newsrooms
A preliminary report of US secret services, disclosed by the two media institutions, has established that American attacks in Iran have delayed the Iranian nuclear program, but did not completely destroy it. The Trump administration was not satisfied with the publication of information, writes news.ro.
US President Donald Trump has transmitted, through a lawyer, legal notifications to CNN and The New York Times requesting the withdrawal of articles regarding the effects of recent US air strokes in Iran, articles that publications consider correct.
On Thursday night, a CNN spokesman confirmed that the network responded to the notification by rejecting the accusations contained in the document.
The New York Times made his answer public, who said, among others: “No withdrawal is required. No excuse will be offered. I told the truth as well as we could. And we will continue to do so.”
Trump has a long history of litigation in his business career and an even longer historian with processes that he has often not implemented.
In the last year, however, he has intensified his legal campaign against large media institutions, including CBS.
The legal letter this week, signed by Alejandro Brito, one of Trump's personal lawyers, claims that articles published on June 24 by CNN and The New York Times are false and defamatory.
What the articles said
The articles described a preliminary evaluation of American air -blowing services, which contradicted the statements made by Trump that Iran's nuclear enrichment sites were “completely and totally destroyed.”
According to these publications, American espionage has established, in a confidential classified document, that American attacks in Iran have delayed the Iranian nuclear program with just a few months, but did not completely destroy it.
Administration officials confirmed the existence of this evaluation, but claimed that it had a “low degree of confidence” and stated that the flow of information was made to undermine the president.
Trump accused CNN and The New York Times of associating to try to denigrate “American intervention in Iran.
Several officials promised to trigger data leaks, and Trump said that “any person responsible for these leaks should be prosecuted.”
Trump also responded by personal attacks on CNN and The New York Times.
“It would be irresponsible for a press organization to suppress this information”
On Wednesday, when Trump asked for dismissal of one of the three CNN reporters who initially published the story, CNN replied.
“We support 100% journalism practiced by Natasha Bertrand and especially its article and its colleagues” on the evaluation of information services, the TV station said.
CNN stressed that his account correctly presented the conclusions of the evaluation, “which are of public interest”.
The main lawyer of New York Times, David E. McCraw, made similar remarks in his response to Brito on Thursday.
“The American public has the right to know if the attack on Iran – funded by the taxpayers' money and with huge consequences for every citizen – was a success,” McCraw wrote.
“We rely on our information services to provide the type of impartial evaluation that we all need in a democracy to judge the country's foreign policy and the quality of our leaders' decisions,” he added.
Therefore, he wrote, “it would be irresponsible for a press organization to suppress this information and to refuse the public to know them.”
“And it would be even more irresponsible for a president to use the threat with a slander process to try to silence a publication that dared to report that experts in the US government-trained, professionals and patriots-believed that the president could have been deceived in his initial statements,” the lawyer said.
