Donald Trump is a man who loves his lawsuits, so it was no surprise that in the hours following the publication of the NY Times story about two women who claim Trump groped them, the word from Trump Tower was that he would sue the paper. Trump had his lawyers send the Times a letter demanding they retract their article, and has spent part of today's rally in Florida talking about how he would sue the paper as well. The Times has issued their response to Trump's letter with a refusal to take down the story (expected) and a claim that they couldn't libel him if they tried, the legal equivalent of breaking a bottle and waving it at your opponent (unexpected).
Nyt Letter by mlcalderone on Scribd
"The essence of a libel claim, is of course, the protection of one's reputation," the Times' assistant general counsel David McCraw wrote in the publicly shared response, before running through Trump's greatest hits including the Billy Bush tape, bragging about walking in on women in his beauty pageants, talking about Ivanka Trump as a "piece of ass."
"Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words, and actions, has already created for himself," McCraw concludes before going on to say that the Times published newsworthy information and that if Trump disagrees they "welcome the opportunity to have a court set him straight."
All in all, a response that brings to mind only one moment in history:
