2026年8月21日 / 美国东部时间晚上9:10 / 哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）新闻
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阿登·法希 华盛顿分社常务主编
阿登·法希是哥伦比亚广播公司新闻华盛顿分社的常务主编。他曾报道多场总统竞选以及奥巴马、特朗普和拜登政府。他的执行制片作品包括《与马杰尔·加勒特共进午餐》以及哥伦比亚广播公司新闻原创播客《背叛特工》，其作品曾获两项艾美奖、杜邦奖和纽约节金奖。
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雅各布·罗森 司法部记者
杰克·罗森是负责报道美国司法部的记者。此前他曾作为竞选数字记者报道特朗普总统2024年竞选活动，还曾担任《与玛格丽特·布伦南面对面》的助理制片人。
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特朗普总统的法律团队威胁要起诉左翼智库美国进步中心（CAP），原因是该智库7月发布的一份报告称“没有证据表明国民警卫队的部署减少了暴力犯罪”，该报告被指构成诽谤。
在8月17日的一封信中，特朗普的律师亚历杭德罗·布里托声称这份报告包含实质性虚假陈述，目的是损害总统的声誉。他给该组织设定了周五下午5点的最后期限，要求其撤回报告、道歉并赔偿总统损失。布里托写道，若不遵守要求，可能会引发至少索赔50亿美元损害赔偿的诉讼。
美国进步中心的律师凯文·梅茨在回信中表示：“这完全是荒谬的：真相不是也不可能构成诽谤。……有权反对政府、辩论政策并对政策选择表达异议，这是运转正常的美国民主的核心。”
两封信均由哥伦比亚广播公司新闻获得。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻已联系布里托置评。
“这场威胁性诉讼对事实和证据的攻击毫无根据，”美国进步中心主席兼首席执行官内拉·坦登在一份声明中表示。“第一修正案的一项基本保护措施，就是允许发布与任何一届政府的论点和主张相悖的事实和分析。提起诉讼显然是企图压制我们。我们不会在这种威胁面前退缩或屈服。”
特朗普政府于2025年6月首次向洛杉矶部署国民警卫队部队，任务是在针对移民突袭的激烈抗议中保护联邦移民官员和其他联邦执法人员。
两个月后，特朗普宣布国民警卫队部队也将部署到华盛顿特区，“将我们的国家首都从犯罪、流血、混乱和肮脏等更糟糕的状况中解救出来”。随后，孟菲斯和新奥尔良也部署了部队。
引发总统不满的这份报告，基于对上述社区全市犯罪数据的多项分析，得出结论称国民警卫队的部署“对暴力犯罪、凶杀或枪支受害情况没有可衡量的影响”。
总体而言，美国联邦调查局（FBI）上周报告称，2025年全国暴力犯罪率有所下降。
哥伦比亚广播公司新闻法律撰稿人、洛杉矶洛约拉法学院教授杰西卡·莱文森表示，如果特朗普就美国进步中心的报告提起诉讼，“由于公众人物在诽谤案件中适用的法律标准，他将面临艰难的 uphill battle（ uphill battle 译为“艰难挑战”）”。
“官员必须证明涉案被告发表声明时存在实际恶意，即明知声明为虚假，或罔顾其虚假性而轻率为之，”莱文森解释道。
“关于统计数据的争议几乎不可能构成诽谤索赔。”
此外，她表示，总统“必须证明所涉声明被合理理解为针对他本人，而非……一般性批评其政府的声明”。
特朗普历来利用诉讼 targeting（译为“打击”）他认为是政治对手的机构和个人。
坦登在声明中表示：“在美国，对公共政策的深刻分歧应通过激烈的公开辩论来解决，而非通过威胁或恐吓。独立数据、证据和分析是这场辩论的关键。任何因为某项研究结果不受某届政府或总统欢迎就试图压制独立研究的行为，都应该让所有美国人感到警觉。”
Trump threatens defamation suit against left-leaning think tank
August 21, 2026 / 9:10 PM EDT / CBS News
By
Arden Farhi Washington bureau managing editor
Arden Farhi is the managing editor for CBS News’ Washington bureau. He has covered several presidential campaigns and the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations. His executive producer credits include “The Takeout with Major Garrett” and the CBS News original podcast “Agent of Betrayal,” and his work has been recognized with two Emmy Awards, a DuPont Award and a NY Festivals gold medal.
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Jacob Rosen Justice Department Reporter
Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump’s 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
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President Trump’s legal team is threatening to sue left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress for defamation over a report it issued in July that found “no evidence that National Guard deployments have reduced violent crime.”
In an Aug. 17 letter, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, claimed the report contains materially false statements intended to damage the president. He set a deadline of 5 p.m. Friday for the organization to retract the report, apologize and compensate the president. Failure to comply, Brito wrote, could result in a lawsuit seeking at least $5 billion in damages.
Kevin Metz, an attorney for the Center for American Progress, responded in a letter: “This is utterly absurd: truth is not and cannot be defamation. … The right to disagree with the government, debate policies, and express dissent over policy choices is central to a functioning American democracy.”
Both letters were obtained by CBS News. CBS News has reached out to Brito for comment.
“This threatened lawsuit’s attack on facts and evidence is baseless,” CAP President and CEO Neera Tanden said in a statement. “A fundamental protection of the First Amendment is to allow for the publication of facts and analysis that are contrary to the arguments and claims of any administration. A lawsuit is a transparent attempt to silence us. We will neither cower nor bend in the face of it.”
The Trump administration first deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June 2025 with a mission to protect federal immigration officials and other federal law enforcement amid heated protests over immigration raids.
Two months later, Mr. Trump announced Guard troops would also deploy to Washington, D.C., “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” Deployments to Memphis and New Orleans followed.
The report that drew the president’s ire relied on multiple analyses of citywide crime data in those communities and concluded that the National Guard deployments “had no measurable effect on violent crime, homicides, or gun victimizations.”
Overall, the FBI reported last week that violent crime rates were down nationwide in 2025.
If Mr. Trump pursues a lawsuit over CAP’s report, he’s “going to have a difficult hill to climb because of the legal standard that is used by public figures in defamation cases,” said CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
“The official has to show that the defendant made the statement at issue with actual malice, which means they knew the statement was false, or they acted in reckless disregard of its falsity,” Levinson explained.
“It’s very unlikely that a dispute about statistics would give rise to a defamation claim.”
In addition, she said, the president “would have to show that the statements of issue are reasonably understood as being about him, as opposed to statements … generally criticizing his administration.”
Mr. Trump has a history of using lawsuits to target institutions and individuals he perceives as political opponents.
Tanden, in her statement, said, “In America, profound disagreements over public policy are resolved through robust public debate, not through threats or intimidation. Independent data, evidence, and analysis are essential to that debate. Efforts to silence independent research because its findings are unwelcome by an administration or president should alarm every American.”
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