Trump re-election campaign slaps New York Times with a lawsuit

The re-election campaign of President Donald Trump filed a defamation lawsuit against the New York Times over an opinion article making claims about Russian collusion.

The lawsuit was filed by the campaign at the New York State Supreme Court, which is New York's trial court system, not its court of last resort.

The campaign said in a statement that the lawsuit was meant to hold the news organization "accountable for intentionally publishing false statements against President Trump's campaign," according to Reuters.

The complaint was made against an opinion article by Max Frankel from March 2019.

The article was entitled, "The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo" with the subhead, "The campaign and the Kremlin had an overarching deal: help beat Hillary Clinton for a new pro-Russian foreign policy."

Democrats have claimed that the president has been implementing foreign policies favorable to the Russian government in exchange for the interference in the 2016 election they say helped tank Hillary Clinton's campaign.

The president has fired back that he thought it was better to be friends with Russia and also that he has been the toughest on Russia of any other president.

"As I have always said, long before the Witch Hunt started, getting along with Russia, China, and everyone is a good thing, not a bad thing," the president tweeted in May 2019.

The New York Times released a statement in response to the lawsuit.

"The Trump campaign has turned to the courts to try to punish an opinion writer for having an opinion they find unacceptable. Fortunately, the law protects the right of Americans to express their judgments and conclusions, especially about events of public importance," the statement read.

"We look forward to vindicating that right in this case," the statement concluded.