The Trump campaign on Friday put CNN on the defense with its filing of a lawsuit that alleges a piece published by the network was built on "false and defamatory" statements.
The Washington Examiner said the complaint was filed in federal court in the Northern District of Georgia.
A statement from Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis explained, "The complaint alleges CNN was aware of the falsity at the time it published them but did so for the intentional purpose of hurting the campaign while misleading its own readers in the process."
She noted the campaign earlier sued both the New York Times and the Washington Post for similar offenses.
Ellis said the cases are "to hold the publishers accountable for their reckless false reporting and also to establish the truth."
The Examiner explained the case claimed that FBI special counsel Robert Mueller, who spent years of time and millions of dollars investigating the Democrats' "Russia collusion" allegations and said it didn't happen, should have included criminal charges against the Trump campaign for "conspiring with Russia."
The article by ex-Federal Election Commission official Larry Noble, was headlined, "Soliciting dirt on your opponents from a foreign government is a crime. Mueller should have charged Trump campaign officials with it."
The new action alleges CNN "was aware the statements in the article were false," the report said.
That's because there was a long list of statements from the campaign disavowing "any intention to seek Russian assistance."
The report said the network refused a request for a retraction.
Trump's campaign earlier targeted the Times, which he often has called "fake news."
There, the campaign said the newspaper falsely stated that the campaign had an "overarching deal" with Vladimir Putin's oligarchy to get help for his campaign "in exchange for 'a new pro-Russian foreign policy.'"
That case alleges the newspaper pursued its "false" reporting because of "extreme bias against and animosity toward the campaign, and the Times' exuberance to improperly influence the presidential election in November 2020."
The Times also is accused of "a systematic pattern of bias against the campaign, designed to maliciously interfere with and damage its reputation and seek to cause the organization to fail."
The "defamatory article" by Max Frankel was headlined "The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo."
Later, the Trump campaign put the Washington Post on notice.
That case involves two stories from 2019. One was headlined, "Trump just invited another Russian attack. Mitch McConnell is making one more likely," and claimed Mueller found Trump's 2016 campaign tried to conspire with Russia.
Also targeted was one called, "Trump: I can win reelection with my base," which allegedly was defamatory for saying, "Who knows what sort of aid Russia and North Korea will give to the Trump campaign, now that he has invited them to offer their assistance?"