Cruz Welcomes Trump’s Threatened Defamation Suit

An ad about Donald Trump’s history of publicly supporting abortion rights, aired by Sen. Ted Cruz, led Trump to threaten a defamation lawsuit. Cruz doubled-down on the rhetoric, saying Trump has been “threatening frivolous lawsuits for [his] entire adult life.” He added, “Even in the annals of frivolous lawsuits, this takes the cake.” The ad showed footage of a 1999 Meet the Press interview in which Trump said he is “very pro-choice,” and would not ban partial abortion. Jeffrey Goldberg of Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman LLP, who represents Trump, sent Cruz a letter saying the ad was “not only completely disingenuous, but replete with outright lies, false, defamatory and destructive statements and downright fabrications which you fully know to be untrue, thereby exposing you and the Cruz campaign to liability for damages and other tortious harm.” Cruz, a former litigator, seemed to savor the moment: “One of the things I look forward to most of all is deposing Donald Trump,” he said. “For that particular endeavor, I may well not use outside counsel – I may take the deposition myself.”