WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court refused Monday to revive a $300 million defamation lawsuit filed against CNN over its coverage of a prominent attorney's remarks made while defending President Donald Trump during his 2020 impeachment.
The majority declined to take up the case in a brief, unexplained order. Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas dissented, calling on the court to reconsider the legal standards for public figures who claim defamation.
Alan Dershowitz said the news network aired only a portion of the comment made during his defense of the president, distorting his meaning to make him look like he’d “lost his mind,” according to court documents.
The network said that multiple outlets had interpreted his remarks in a similar way, and Dershowitz couldn’t show CNN was trying to mischaracterize what he said.
In his appeal, Dershowitz had urged the court to reconsider New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. The landmark First Amendment case that made it harder for public figures to win libel lawsuits because it requires proof that an outlet knowingly published something false, or showed a reckless disregard for the truth.
Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law School professor and legal commentator, was part of Trump's defense team during his impeachment trial over allegations that Trump wanted political favors from Ukraine in return for U.S. military aid. Trump was acquitted by the Senate.
Dershowitz responded to a question at one point by saying, “the only thing that would make a quid pro quo unlawful is if the quo were somehow illegal." Providing arms to Ukraine, he said, isn't illegal.
He alleged that CNN only played what he said moments later: “Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the public interest and, mostly, they are right, your election is in the public interest, and if the president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment.”
Dershowitz said the edit made it seem like he was arguing a president could avoid impeachment for illegal acts as long as he was doing it to get reelected – a concept his original suit called “preposterous and foolish on its face.”
CNN countered by saying it did air his full remarks during its live coverage, and invited him on twice more to expand on his meaning.
Lower courts tossed out the suit, finding that Dershowitz hadn’t shown CNN acted with “actual malice” in its reporting, making it fall short of the standard set by New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.
The U.S. Supreme Court is photographed, on Thursday, June 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
FILE - Attorney Alan Dershowitz leaves federal court,in New York, Dec. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
LEXINGTON, South Carolina (AP) — Alex Murdaugh was back in court again Monday on charges he killed his wife and son, appearing at a pretrial hearing that will likely be short on substance but long on spectacle as the true crime sensation continues to captivate.
Murdaugh’s murder convictions and sentence of life in prison were overturned last month by the South Carolina Supreme Court. The only goals of Monday's hearing are to set deadlines for exchanging evidence between the defense and prosecution, and to figure out dates for other hearings and maybe for the next trial.
Dozens of media outlets, from international agencies to local TV stations to true crime podcasters, were inside the Lexington County courthouse to again chronicle every forehead rub and quizzical look from the once rich and imposing Southern lawyer.
"I see we have a full house,” Judge Debra R. McCaslin said.
It's a rare chance to see up close how life behind bars has changed the 58-year-old Murdaugh, who still has decades to serve in a South Carolina prison after pleading guilty to stealing about $12 million from clients and his family's law firm.
Prosecutors said Murdaugh shot his wife Maggie and younger son Paul, 22, because he believed sympathy over their deaths would buy him time to fix his problems. At that point, his financial crimes were close to being exposed by his law firm and the family of a teen who filed a wrongful death lawsuit after Paul crashed a boat while drinking.
Although he remains in prison, Murdaugh's lawyers want the judge to allow him to wear civilian clothes and not have his wrists or ankles shackled at every hearing and during his retrial. He appeared in court Monday in an orange prison jumpsuit, listening with his mouth fixed in a tight line.
“Mr. Murdaugh's convictions for non-violent, white-collar crimes in no way justify presenting him to the jury pool as a shackled prisoner in a prison jumpsuit via video cameras at televised pretrial hearings,” defense attorneys wrote in their request.
Defense lawyer want to provide Murdaugh, who was disbarred during his legal troubles, a laptop in prison without internet access to review evidence so they don’t have to print and deliver it all. Attorney Dick Harpootlian said Monday there are more than 20,000 pages of documents.
“Well surely, Mr. Harpootlian, he reviewed those before his first trial, did he not?” the judge asked.
“Five years ago,” the lawyer replied.
Another pretrial motion asks prosecutors to turn over DNA found under Murdaugh’s wife’s fingernails for testing at a private lab. Investigators said it was from an unknown and unrelated man. The defense also wants to hold the next trial outside of Colleton County, where the killings happened and the first trial took place.
While admitting he is a thief, insurance cheat, liar and bad lawyer, Murdaugh has adamantly denied shooting to death his wife and son since he said he found their bodies outside their home in 2021.
A jury convicted him of two counts of murder in 2023 and he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
But during that trial, a few jurors said the Colleton County clerk of court, assigned to oversee the evidence and the jury during the trial, told them to watch Murdaugh’s body language when he testified in his own defense and to not be fooled, confused or thrown off by what he might say.
The state Supreme Court ruled that was a suggestion Murdaugh was guilty and overturned his convictions.
The justices were also concerned that days of testimony at the murder trial centered around how Murdaugh stole from clients, many of them in dire straits.
Brief testimony is fine, but details such as how some of the people Murdaugh stole from were disabled or vulnerable could unfairly turn against him jurors who should be focused just on whether he killed his family, the justices said.
Murdaugh remains in a South Carolina prison as he serves a 40-year federal sentence at the same time as a 27-year state sentence for his financial crimes.
FILE - Alex Murdaugh, convicted of killing his wife, Maggie, and younger son, Paul, in June 2021, listens during a hearing on the motion for a retrial, Jan. 16, 2024, at the Richland County Judicial Center, in Columbia, S.C. (Gavin McIntyre/The Post and Courier via AP, Pool, File)
