Trump attorney demands retraction from N.Y. Times

Donald Trump

An attorney for Donald Trump said Tuesday he would like the New York Times to apologize for a story it ran about the billionaire businessman and his past dalliances with women, as well as issue a retraction, but news executives responded to the call with a terse reply that basically said: Sorry, but that's just not going to happen.

The brouhaha began when the New York Times published a front page weekend story, "Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private," that cited several of his reported past dates and female executives who said he treated them poorly.

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Among some of the story's charges: A comment from Rowanne Brewer Lane, in which she said Trump "took me into a room and opened drawers and asked me to put on a swimsuit," and another from a woman who served as his construction executive for his Midtown Manhattan offices, who said the billionaire told her, "You like your candy," an apparent reference to her body weight.

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Trump, on the campaign trail, has self-identified as someone who's championed the equal rights of women, and has pointed to his many appointments of women to various positions in business as proof.

He's also denied much of what's been claimed by campaign opponents and critics about his attitudes toward women, saying "a lot of things get made up over the years."

But the New York Times article hit a nerve. Trump tweeted 10 times on Monday alone about the piece, accusing the paper of printing a "totally dishonest" story and a "false, malicious and libelous story."

He also tweeted about one of the women cited in the article, Barbara Res: "I gave a woman named Barbara Res a top N.Y. construction job, when that was unheard of, and now she is nasty. So much for a nice thank you!"

One of his Trump Organization attorneys suggested Monday night a lawsuit was looming.

On "Erin Burnett OutFront" on CNN, general counsel Jill Martin said, of a suit: "I think that is a distinct possibility. I haven't talked to him about it personally but, you know, when he's attacked like that and things are said falsely, he definitely fires back."

On Tuesday, however, another Trump attorney, Michael Cohen, came forward to say, CNN Money reported: "I don't think that this is going to end up in litigation."

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Cohen went on, saying there was a "very high bar" to meet to sue news outlets, but regardless, "the truth is that the New York Times owes ... Donald Trump an apology. They need to do a retraction and they need to actually be fair, because they're destroying their paper."

The New York Times' executive office indicated neither was forthcoming anytime soon.

Not only did the story take weeks to research, but it's also proven to be the top hit for the paper's online traffic, one New York Times spokesperson said, CNN Money reported. And as New York Times journalist Maggie Haberman tweeted, in reference to Trump's very public Twitter war on the story: "But in all seriousness, when was last time a major party nominee spent day making sure MORE people saw story they disliked?"