After weeks of aggrieved messages about the vice president Kamala Harristhe October 7 interview with 60 minutesformer president Donald Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the program’s network Thursday — alleging “illegal acts of election and voter interference.” The lawsuit is frivolous, First Amendment lawyers agree. But he will appear before the judge Matthew Kacsmaryka Trump-appointed activist who has not historically let legal or intellectual rigor get in the way of his ideology.

The trial testifies to the hostile atmosphere that American journalism will face under a second Trump administration: both on social networks and during the election campaign, the Republican presidential candidate threatened to imprison journalists and called the big networks to lose their broadcast licenses. However, few channels have drawn Trump’s ire like CBS, which aired an interview with Harris earlier this month.

60 minutes traditionally interviewed both presidential candidates during election years, but Trump declined the program’s invitation because of concerns that its producers would check it. Instead, the former president was furious about the Truth Social show, in which he claimed, without evidence, that 60 minutes doctored Harris’ interview to make her seem smarter and more articulate. Trump’s lawyers made similar claims in court filings, arguing that CBS’s alteration of the interview amounted to “a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.” Rebecca TouchnetFrank Stanton, a professor of First Amendment law at Harvard Law School, called the lawsuit “ridiculous smut (that) should be laughed at” in comments to CNN. For its part, CBS has rigorously denied Trump’s allegations that the edits to Harris’ interview were excessive or unfair. In a statement from October 20network representatives invited the former president to say it to his face, so to speak: “If he would like to discuss the issues facing the nation and the Harris interview, we would be happy to have him on 60 minutes.”

Notably, Trump’s lawyers filed their brief in the Amarillo Division of the U.S. District Court for Northern Texas — on the face of it, an unusual choice for a candidate based in Florida and a network headquartered in New York. But the choice of venue ensures that the case will be brought before Kacsmaryk, an outspoken conservative who has developed a national reputation for his sympathy with anti-abortion, anti-immigration and anti-LGBTQ plaintiffs.

The case also provides insight into the potential fate of First Amendment rights during Trump’s second term. In addition to his ongoing feud with CBS, the former president last month called on ABC to lose your license after having verified it during a debate in September, and last year he asked that NBC be investigated for “treason.” Trump also promised to throw journalists, editors and publishers in jail for protecting confidential sources. “When this person realizes that they are soon to be the wife of another prisoner, they will say, ‘I would love to tell you exactly who that was,'” Trump told AFP. a 2022 rally.

Press freedom organizations warn that Trump’s rhetoric has already made journalism more dangerous. A February survey A survey of more than 600 journalists in the United States found that more than a third had been threatened with physical violence. Many said they felt particularly unsafe while covering Trump rallies and “Stop the Steal” protests.