Trump will ask Supreme Court to revive his US$475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN

US President Donald Trump told the US Supreme Court he intends to ask the justices to revive his US$475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN over use of the term “Big Lie” in reporting on his claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him.

Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court for a 60-day extension to August 15 to file his petition for review of the lower court’s dismissal of the case, according to a request that was formally docketed by the justices on Friday. The filing, the first sign that Trump would seek to revive the suit, indicated his appeal would double down on his claims about the 2020 election.

Trump sued CNN in 2022, accusing the network of smearing him by frequently using the term “Big Lie” to describe his unsubstantiated theory that Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election was the result of massive voter fraud. He also claimed the network harmed his reputation by hosting guests who compared him to Adolf Hitler.

“In reality, President Trump was lawfully pursuing then-unresolved, and now proven, claims about election irregularities in the 2020 presidential election,” Trump’s personal lawyer Alejandro Brito said in the Supreme Court filing.

Trump seeks to revive the lawsuit as he presses ahead with several other multibillion defamation cases against the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the UK’s BBC, all of which were filed since Trump retook the White House in the 2024 presidential election.

CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.