It's no secret that Trump sues and threatens to sue people to keep them quiet. He has done this countless times to all kinds of people. Anyone who crosses his path is a target for him. A lawyer, Ted Boutrous, has offered his legal services for free to anyone who is sued by Trump for exercising their free speech rights. According to the tweet, apparently there are many other lawyers lining up to do the same.
And if you've forgotton, Trump is embroiled in lawsuits as we speak. Trump is due in court on Nov. 28, 2016 for his Trump University fraud case:
"The underlying civil lawsuit names Trump as a defendant and claims his now-defunct Trump University defrauded students out of $40 million in course fees. The case was first filed in 2010 and covers a class of some 7,600 students in New York, Florida and California." -NY Daily News
Trump has an entire section in Wikipedia dedicated to his legal affairs. Here's a sampling from Wikipedia:
An analysis by USA Today published in June 2016 found that over the previous three decades, Trump and his businesses have been involved in 3,500 legal cases in U.S. federal courts and state court, an unprecedented number for a U.S. presidential candidate. Of the 3,500 suits, Trump or one of his companies were plaintiffs in 1,900; defendants in 1,450; and bankruptcy, third party, or other in 150. Trump was named in at least 169 suits in federal court. A number of other cases (over 150) were in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida (covering Broward County, Florida) since 1983. -Wikipedia
To get a real taste for just how sue triggered Trump is, look at this:
"I had intended to quantify how many journalists or news commentators Trump has threatened to sue over his lifetime, but that quickly turned into a fool’s errand. A simple Google search of “Trump threatens to sue” will return an overwhelming number of stories. In the past decade alone, he’s sued a former Times journalist who wrote a book about him that he later admitted he didn’t even read; he’s threatened to sue former View host Rosie O’Donnell for allegations that have been shown over and over again during this campaign to be correct; he’s sued HBO’s Bill Maher over a joke bet that involved proving he was not, in fact, born an orangutan.
He threatened to sue a journalist at the Village Voice as far back as 1979, and he actually sued a newspaper as early as 1984: the Chicago Tribune, for calling building plans of his “aesthetically lousy.” My personal favorite was his threat to sue The Onion, the popular satirical news site." -Columbia Journalism Review
So, basically what journalists have to look forward to is the threat of lawsuits, lots of them. Looking at Trump's litigation history tells the story. Ted Boutrous and other lawyers will be a much needed commodity regarding freedom of the press during a Trump presidency. You can follow Ted Boutrous on Twitter at @BoutrousTed.
If you are a journalist, you'd be wise to start making a list of lawyers who will represent you pro bono. Here's Ted Boutrous' original article where he outlines why he has chosen to represent anyone who gets sued by Trump in the future and why he'll win: Why I'll Defend Anyone Trump Sues For Speaking Freely
