There’s no way to read the decision restoring Jim Acosta’s press pass as anything other than a smackdown. Federal judge Timothy Kelly found that CNN was very likely to prevail at the very least on Fifth Amendment grounds.
But one part of his ruling jumped out at me in particular. The basis that the White House initially proffered for suspending Acosta’s press pass was a video that appeared to show him chopping away the hand of the intern who was trying to take the mic from him during a heated exchange with Trump. It has been amply demonstrated that this video was deceptively edited to make Acosta’s action look more aggressive than it really was. In truth, Acosta was merely using his hand to shield the mic.
Kelly disposed of that argument using language that you never want to see from a judge. He found that Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ claim that Acosta inappropriately touched the woman was “likely untrue” and “partly based on evidence of questionable accuracy.” Translation—Kelly felt the video was bogus.
Long before Friday, I believed that Acosta should be at least thinking about suing the Princess of Lies for libel. After seeing Kelly take down that video so brutally, to my mind it shouldn't even be a debate—Acosta has a chance to rain down more legal hurt on Sanders, and should seize it.
Acosta already had a strong case for a libel suit. That video was clearly intended to smear him and ruin his reputation. Moreover, digging back into my media law class at Carolina, Acosta can definitely claim that Sanders posted that video with actual malice—the standard a public figure must prove in order to win a libel suit. At the very least, that video was the very definition of reckless disregard for the truth. Indeed, to my non-lawyer’s mind, this is so egregious that I would think Acosta should sue Sanders in both her official and personal capacity.
Let’s not beat around the bush. This is the most egregious attempt the White House has made to bully journalists into submission. Moreover, this White House literally tried to use fake news to punish a network that it accuses of churning out fake news. Sanders and Trump have to be put on notice that this will not stand.
Suing Sanders for libel would all but assure that we will find out where Sanders got that video. If that isn’t ferreted out via discovery, hopefully Sanders would have to reveal under oath where she got it.
I know that this sounds like a nuclear option. But how do we know they won’t try this again? There must not be a next time for this. If I were Acosta and I went this route, the only way I would drop this suit is if Sanders apologizes for this outrageous libel—while she’s resigning.