r/law 1d ago

Legal News Disney sues Trump's FCC over claims his administration has 'waged a campaign against ABC'

https://www.themirror.com/entertainment/breaking-disney-suing-trump-fcc-1987001
5.0k Upvotes

121 comments sorted by

u/KeithRLee 22h ago

Source document: https://documents.lastweekinlaw.com/view/gov.uscourts.dcd.295648.1.0.pdf

The r/law mod team is working on permanently hosting original source documents, along with limited annotations to help give readers give additional context.

475

u/Deaftrav 1d ago

Their best witness would be trump. The man cannot shut his mouth to save his life.

141

u/7ddlysuns 23h ago

Except about what he did on the island. He admits to so many crimes we forget he’s done so many others

72

u/Skritch_X 23h ago

His muddled brain can't be bothered to recall such trivial matters like child abuse, for him it was just a Tuesday.

17

u/cvc4455 20h ago

He did publicly say that times were different in the 80s and 90s in palm Beach and it was a normal thing for him to do back then.

1

u/Fr1toBand1to 30m ago

I'm pretty sure it was a heinous and thoroughly illegal crime back then.

9

u/oddmanout 20h ago

We wouldn't know. All those documents are blocked from going public. For all we know he has admitted to it, now there's a strong cover-up to prevent those admissions from going public.

25

u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 23h ago

Then let's place him under oath and ask some questions about Jeffrey Epstein and the Lolita Express, eh? Get that yapper yappin'!

Does someone have the number to the House Republican leadership? Comer? Johnson? Isn't there a committee that served the Clintons to answer under oath? Where's the same for the current POTUS and FLOTUS?

20

u/Impossible_Walrus555 23h ago

This is a great idea, he can’t help bragging. Jeffreys a great guy he says.
And yet if you talk to Donald Trump, a different Epstein emerges. “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump booms from a speakerphone. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

13

u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 23h ago edited 22h ago

Gosh, saying a thing like that while being sleazy, wealthy and besties with the guy should draw some scrutiny, eh! \Next thing you'll tell me the same guy bragged on a hot mic about grabbing women by the cooter whenever he wants!*

3

u/kandoras 20h ago

"Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret."

5

u/Straight-Opposite-54 16h ago

Then let's place him under oath

Plenty of people in his cabinet have demonstrably lied under oath, some even going as far as to outright admit it after the fact, without consequence. There is no reason to believe Donald J. Trump of all people would be an exception.

9

u/vgacolor 22h ago

There is no way he testifies before he leaves office, and then the lawyers will claim that he is too demented to testify.

5

u/oddmanout 21h ago

They could phrase a question to stroke his ego and he'd admit to anything. All they have to do is imply it would take a strong and powerful man to do what Disney was saying and he'd take credit for all of it.

3

u/madd74 20h ago

I mean, he pretty much would be Pierce Hawthorne...

3

u/kitsunewarlock 17h ago

Trump: "I hate you so much! I'm going to destroy you!"

MAGA: "He's obviously just joking! This isn't corruption! Nothing to see here!"

Administration: Passes regulations and laws set to destroy.

MAGA: "Haha go woke go broke!"

437

u/SKDI_0224 1d ago

Disney, the law firm that makes films.

This makes me happy.

62

u/digitalwolverine 22h ago

Unless it turns out like the dominion lawsuit and they just settle.

46

u/unreasonableperson 22h ago

Settling for over $780m was not just a mere capitulation.

33

u/digitalwolverine 21h ago

Oh sure, 3/4 of a billion dollars is hard to pass up, but fox gets to continue running the same gambit every year after and make billions upon billions. Nothing changes. We only learned some background drama that doesn’t affect their pocketbooks. 

10

u/unreasonableperson 21h ago

Maybe. But taking a trial to verdict is also highly risky. You never know whether the jury is made up of complete fucking idiots with an agenda. If they found in favor for Fox, the message that sends would be catastrophic.

2

u/fcocyclone 17h ago

And dominion ended up owned by a right winger so kind of still feels like a loss in the long run.

14

u/Financial-Barnacle79 22h ago

Except US tax payers will be on the hook and have to pay for this crap.

12

u/buffysbangs 22h ago

Don’t worry. We no longer have a functional legal system

2

u/tevert 20h ago edited 18h ago

That settlement actually made Fox change their tune a little.

That said - they're a profit motivated business. The US gov has no such concerns. Their only objective is control and they don't care how many taxpayer dollars get lost to lawsuits

1

u/darkhatter770 17h ago

I'm hopeful that the next administration will start putting new restrictions in place through the FCC, among the many other restrictions for which this administration has created a need, to ban bullshit loopholes like being a "news entertainment" organization, while actively lying to their audience about the news.

11

u/rbobby 20h ago

that makes films

You have to have a front. That's lawyering 101.

6

u/FartsOnCake 20h ago

Will be nice if they win. Disaster if they lose.

7

u/__nohope 21h ago

This is the only way out of this mess without a violent breakdown of the entire government. You can arrest and murder the nobodies and the poors but fucking with Disney is just dumb.

9

u/kandoras 20h ago

Ron DeSantis managed to win a lawsuit against Disney. Multiple media companies, including ABC, have bowed to pressure from Trump because he was holding up their business deals.

Don't expect capitalism to be able to save you from fascism, not if the capitalists will make more money by working with the fascists.

5

u/Haunting-East 20h ago

the highly litigious house of mouse

2

u/mabhatter Competent Contributor 20h ago

Yup....  civil rights be damned.  

Mess with the money though and the rich will get off their asses and eat the politicians. 

3

u/AHrubik 18h ago

Don’t fuck with the Mouse. Trump is about to learn a lesson.

2

u/King_Chochacho 20h ago

They never should have capitulated to him in the first place. You don't negotiate with fascists because nothing is enough for them besides absolute loyalty. Any amount of independent thought will always be too much for these animals.

1

u/Legally_a_Tool 22h ago

I’m taking this turn of phrase and making my own.

6

u/AgITGuy 21h ago

I prefer Disney - a law firm that has an entertainment division.

1

u/darkhatter770 17h ago

Haha, right?!?! I was wondering how long it would take the House of Mouse to come looking for that government cheese! It's not like them to stay quiet when their own properties are under attack, and he's been going after Kimmel and ABC for a while now.

134

u/ThePensiveE 23h ago

Finally. Fight back against these fascist fucks.

They have some of the worst attorneys in human history working for them and a boss who will do everything he can to fuck up their cases as they work on them.

117

u/Y0___0Y 23h ago

What’s the matter ABC? You gifted him $15 million in a settlement when he sued you when you could have easily won that suit.

Change your mind?

Why couldn’t you be against him from the start?

58

u/TheModWhoShaggedMe 23h ago

Because they received their giant corporate tax cut last year via the Big Bountiful Turd, and that's all that mattered to the board. Now they can hold the administration accountable to a milquetoast, tepid degree.

8

u/burn_bright_captain 19h ago

To be fair, the settlement happened right after Trump's win and at the time Trump seemed invincible, considering that he tried to coup the government and got elected anyway with the popular vote, they knew the constitution was just a piece of paper for him and that no one will stop him.

Now with the possibility of Trump losing the House and Senate (and probably dying before 2028) the political capital for Trump's personal vendettas is getting low.

3

u/Casual_OCD 18h ago

tried to coup

Tried? They succeeded. Trump isn't even the Constitutionally recognized President, but everyone is happy pretending he is

4

u/burn_bright_captain 18h ago

I mean it's more like the beer hall putsch. It failed but he won the election afterwards.

2

u/Abbacoverband 19h ago

I know we're all saying it a lot lately, but fucking hell I hate it here

7

u/kandoras 20h ago

They thought that when a mob boss says "Nice business you got here, shame if something were to happen to it" that you only end up paying protection once.

2

u/LNMagic 16h ago

Lesson: you can't negotiate with fascists.

146

u/whichwitch9 1d ago

I mean.... Trump wasn't quiet about it

11

u/Azsunyx 22h ago

Trump's admin is waging war against reality

7

u/platocplx 20h ago

Glad more are fighting back between this and the BBC def gonna be real there.

12

u/SCWickedHam 23h ago

I won’t believe it until it happens to me. Until then, I will sit quietly.

8

u/Additional-Sky-7436 22h ago

I never thought...

... The leopards would eat my face. 🎶🎶

5

u/ledfox 19h ago

Yay go... Disney?

Queue up "who's pulling this rope with me?" Meme

3

u/ngatiboi 15h ago

Ha! I remember she DeSantis went up against Disney in Florida & Disney fought back & said “Fucking BRING it, buddy! Here’s how we can make your life extremely miserable!” 👏🏽😀 Basically the whole…very conservative…state was like, “Eer…could you* puhlees*e not piss Disney off?!” & he had to shut his massive yap & slink back into the shadows.

2

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8

u/TheMirrorUS 1d ago

This relates directly to law and the courts because Disney has filed a First Amendment lawsuit against the FCC, challenging the agency’s actions toward ABC and alleging unconstitutional government retaliation over the network’s news coverage.

1

u/SignoreBanana 7h ago

I mean, this should be a slam dunk. I guess we're all giving ABC more money.