Trump threatens defamation suit against left-leaning think tank

President Trump's legal team has threatened to sue the Center for American Progress (CAP), a left-leaning think tank, over a report published in July. The report claimed there was no evidence that National Guard deployments reduced violent crime. Trump's lawyer, Alejandro Brito, stated in an August 17 letter that the report contains materially false statements intended to damage the president.

CAP's CEO, Neera Tanden, described the threat as attempting to silence independent research, emphasizing the First Amendment's protection of facts and analysis that oppose any administration. The lawsuit comes after Trump deployed National Guard troops to various cities following heated protests over immigration raids. CAP maintains that truth cannot be defamation and that the right to disagree with the government and debate policies is essential to American democracy.

Legal experts have suggested that Trump would have to prove actual malice, meaning the statements were made with knowledge of their falsity or reckless disregard for their falsehood, to win a defamation case.