Attorneys from the Trump campaign agreed to drop a lawsuit against an NBC affiliate TV station in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, after it sued the station for defamation in April, according to court documents.
The decision came shortly after WJFW-TV 12 asked a judge to dismiss the case because of President Trump’s election loss to President-elect Joe Biden. The suit was dropped with prejudice, meaning it can’t be filed again, the Wausau Daily Herald reported.
The subject of the litigation revolved around a commercial the station aired that was paid for by Democratic super political action committee Priorities USA that put together unrelated audio clips to make it appear that Trump was calling the coronavirus the Democrats’ new hoax.
Court documents allege that Trump did say the words “this is their new hoax” at a February rally in South Carolina, but he was referring to Democrats’ “politicization of the pandemic” rather than the virus itself.
?Remember when Donald Trump filed a frivolous defamation case against a TV station for running a @prioritiesUSA advertisement?
Today he dismissed it WITH PREJUDICE. That means he and his campaign can’t file this silly lawsuit again. pic.twitter.com/PS0tLhojQj
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 13, 2020
The campaign sent the TV station a cease-and-desist letter in March, but it reportedly continued to run the ad anyway.
In the motion filed by the station on Monday, it argued the suit should be thrown out because the Trump campaign filed it, and now that the election is over, the campaign “lacks standing to maintain this suit.”
Wisconsin was one of the most highly coveted states in the 2020 election, which ultimately went to Biden. Trump is pursuing a recount in the state, which he believes could have went for his opponent due to voter fraud. Wisconsin was one of the battleground states Trump was able to flip in 2016 after Democrats dominated it for years.
