UPDATED from 2:23 PM with Univision statement: He said last week that he would go after them in the courts and today the GOP Presidential candidate did just that. Donald Trump slammed Univision Tuesday with an over $500 million lawsuit over the Spanish-language network ending their plans on June 25 to show the July 12 Miss USA pageant. Univision said that the severing of ties was because of remarks Trump made in May about “rapists” immigrants flooding into America. Filed in NY Supreme Court, today’s breach of contract and defamation complaint from Trump and the Miss Universe Organization bluntly demands “an order awarding damages in favor of Mr. Trump for defamation against Defendants, jointly and severally, in an amount to be determined at trial, but believed to be in excess of $500 million, together with interest.” (read it here)
In response, Univision took a swing right back at the real estate billionaire’s lawsuit and previous remarks about immigrants. “We just reviewed Mr. Trump’s complaint for the first time, and it is both factually false and legally ridiculous,” said the network in a statement Tuesday afternoon. “We will not only vigorously defend the case, but will continue to fight against Mr. Trump’s ongoing efforts to run away from the derogatory comments he made on June 16th about Mexican immigrants. Our decision to end our business relationship with Mr. Trump was influenced solely by our responsibility to speak up for the community we serve.”
Waving the First Amendment, Trump took this whole thing to a new level Tuesday by roping in fellow White House contender Hillary Clinton and her supporters as the real dark hand behind the cancellation of Miss USA. “While Univision has claimed in the media that its decision to cut ties with MUO came in response to certain comments by Mr. Trump during a June 16, 2015 campaign speech announcing his candidacy for President of the United States, the decision was, in reality, a thinly veiled attempt by Univision, a privately held company principally owned by longtime Clinton Foundation donor and current Hillary Clinton fundraiser, Haim Saban, to suppress Mr. Trump’s freedom of speech under the First Amendment as he begins to campaign for the nation’s presidency and, in recent weeks, has dramatically risen in the polls while expressing critical views of Mrs. Clinton,” says the complaint.
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The naming names lawsuit also claims that Univision execs like Randy Falco were “engaging in behind the scenes lobbying of their former colleagues and, upon information and belief, colluded with executives at NBC to permanently sever its contractual and business relationship with Plaintiffs by, among other things, refusing to broadcast the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA and Miss Universe pageants in express violation of NBC’s contractual obligations.” NBC announced on Monday that it would be ending its relationship with the former Celebrity Apprentice host and won’t be showing the pageants this year. Trump has said he will take NBC to court too so this may just be the first of many legal actions coming. Of note is that Trump owes 49% of the Miss Universe Organization while NBC Pageants is his partner. NBC Pageants is not named as a defendant or plaintiff is today’s action – but that could change, sources tell me.
Laying out a bit of timeline, Tuesday’s dense complaint states that Univision tried to terminate the January 15, 2015 agreement to show the simulcast of the pageant with a $13.5 million license fee payout. The offer came from “a high ranking executive at Univision” last Thursday, before the network announced it was cutting ties with Trump.”Unfortunately, that amount pales in comparison to the total amount Univision will ultimately have to pay,” says Monday’s lawsuit, which alleges that Univision went public with its decision after their offer was rejected.
“Simply stated, there is nothing in the Agreement which gives Univision the right to terminate its relationship with MUO based on Mr. Trump’s comments,” claims the complaint, echoing remarks trump made soon after Univision pulled the Miss USA plug. “Even if there were, Univision would have been required to serve formal notice on MUO. Univision has failed to do so. Instead, Univision, in an obvious attempt to politicize the situation and suppress Mr. Trump’s right to free speech, including his views on both trade and illegal immigration along the U.S.-Mexican border, has made a concerted effort, upon information and belief, in collusion with others, to wage war against Plaintiffs in the media.”
The jury seeking filing also names Univision’s President of Programming and Content Alberto Ciurana as a defendant. “In a move which can only be described as both tasteless and defamatory, on June 25, 2015, Mr. Ciurana, Univision’s President of Programing and Content, then posted a photo on his official Univision Instagram account comparing Mr. Trump to Dylann Roof, the 21 year old who was recently arrested in the murder of nine (9) African-Americans attending bible study at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, one of the worst hate crimes to ever take place on U.S. soil,” the complaint from attorney Jeffery Goldman of NYC from Belkin, Burden, Wenig & Goldman states. The posting by Ciurana has since been taken down but the legal missiles have just started here – and somebody’s leaving the courtroom eventually feeling fired.
Good luck in front of an multi-ethnic NYC jury, Don
His brand is toxic. Who will want to use his golf clubs, live in his towers or buy his products now that Trump is synonymous with racism?
Buh-bye The Donald.
Trump for the win!
defamation |ˌdefəˈmāSHən|
noun
the action of damaging the good reputation of someone; slander or libel.
Trump said something, clearly racist, that he doesn’t deny saying, and Univision responded. Where’s the defamation? Is he claiming he didn’t say it, or that it isn’t racist? And will he, Trump, need to bring his long form birth certificate to the trial?
How come his comments weren’t racist until several days after he said them? They didn’t become racist until the powers that be decided they were.
There was immediate outrage the very day he said it. It’s very easy to find online. Univision probably received so many complaints from viewers in the days that followed and probably had to consult with their the company’s team of lawyers before cutting ties. That in itself can take days.
no Alex, sorry, they were racist when said. it might have taken a couple of days for the comments to be fully reported upon and for people of good will to think about them and act. I don’t need any “powers that be” to tell me that Trump is a racist.
What? The backlash was IMMEDIATE.
They were pointed out as racist immediately.
What are you talking about? They were racist the second he said them.
He’s also a public figure. Can you imagine Obama suing everybody who lied about him after he started running for President?
It will be reviewed in court in its entirety. Courts are smart, and so are lawyers every detail will be taken into account and ultimately there isn’t really anything racist about what he said. He was discussing illegal immigration, and clearly says that he assumes some people coming across are good people. Plus they had a contract. Trump for the win!
Political theater. That defamation claim has no basis in law. You’re legally allowed to compare one person to another, else everyone on the internet would be bankrupted after comparing politicians to the fuhrer.
He’s a blowhard given the silver spoon till he gags on it.
this country is over when real americans dont stand with trump over illegals
TRUMP FOR THE WIN!
Discovery is going to be interesting….
Univision clearly breached their contract with The Donald. That’s all there is to it. They will settle so Haim Saban and Hillary won’t have to testify in court. Trump will get $50 million possibly more. This is great for his campaign. He’s a fighter and that’s what dis-interested voters like to see. He is going to surprise everyone in the primaries he will win numerous states and go all the way to the convention. He could end up as vice president he will have the delegates to leverage that. Bush-Trump could be the winning ticket. Also today there is a Draft Biden movement that’s growing. Hillary is going to be denied the nomination if Biden jumps in a few months from now in October then Hillary is going to be toast.
First, At the most he will get what they were going to pay 5 million a year, and if he sues Univision he will have to sue NBC, is he going to?, or Univision is going to point to NBC doing EXACTLY the same.
Second, most Democrats don’t want Biden he is as much of a lose cannon as Trump. Shoots his mouth off before thinking. and I’m a Democrat.
Reason things out, Univision and NBC both did the same thing, but, he’s only suing Univision. He might win something but it will be what was lost from the Univision contract and it sure as hell wasn’t 500 million. Talk is cheap, anyone can sue, the hard part is winning.
You must be a lawyer with intimate knowledge of the contract to make such a specific statement as “clearly breached their contract.” I would suggest that Univision are within their rights as The “Multiple Bankruptcies” Donald, by making those statements, just massively reduced the value of the pageant by making sure that many people who would have watched now will boycott instead. That might well invalidate the contract.
Any why would Hillary testify in Trump v Univision?
Shut up, Donald paid-for-spokesperson. No SANE voter wants to see this crap. The rest of the world looks at this and is LAUGHING at us. He is a national embarrassment. And the TRUMP brand? Toast.
Lol, Hillary is the DREAM CANDIDATE……for the Republicans.
A whole new generation of voters will be taught about ALL the Clinton Scandals.
A whole new generation will learn how Ken Starr found nothing and so went after their private lives that had no bearing on governing the country. Go ahead, make libs day.
you say libs like lt’s not a derogatory word
These ironic posts are comedy gold.
Mr. Answer:
I’m pretty sure Univision’s lawyers carefully looked over all their agreements with Mr. Trump before taking this move. And I’m also pretty sure those contracts had clauses pertaining to the public behavior (or misbehavior) of the contracted party, Mr. Trump (including acts and/or speech that could damage the marketability of the network to its audience.) In other words, you can’t insult the customers of a buyer you just sold a product to and expect the buyer to turn around and sell it back to those same customers. They would suffer a finical loss — and that’s why those sorts of contracts have those kinds of stipulations.
All of this is just more bluster and publicity trolling from Trump.
And, BTW, he’s *never* going to let himself be deposed.
Or be a vice presidential candidate for that matter.
But thanks for the laughs.
Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. Univision pulled the plug NOT because Trump is an asshole who said things assholes say… but because Hillary Clinton exists and people support her? What a joke.
As far as “defamation,” he’d have to have a good reputation to damage for that to take place.
His brand name hello.
Trump is like the confederate flag. People knew it was offensive, but no one really did anything about it. Then there was a precipitating event (sadly the murder of 9 innocent people) and all of a sudden the flag became a symbol of something bad and people turned on it very quickly. Trump is the same. People have known he is offensive, but now with the precipitating event of his racist remarks people are turning on him and quickly. His brand is poison. Hopefully people will stop going to his hotels and his empire will collapse.
Trump has a solid case here and Univision and it’s CEO will pay and pay dearly.
I agree. They broke a contractual agreement and if they try to fight it towards what he said, they will laugh at them. DT will clearly win this case.
His campaign is off to a good start.
Trump originally said that the Mexican government was behind it. Now it’s Hillary. LOL
Look at point #34 in the lawsuit
He says how Important the Spanish speaking market is, how lucrative it is for advertisers, and how it’s expected to grow. He says that this market is crucial for his business.
Yet he bashes this same market! He expects to trash them, scapegoat them for all of America’s problems, but extract money from them at the same time.
Unbelievable.
Does he have a case? I understand that people are strongly for or against Trump, but it would be interesting to know what legal standing he has.
Nowhere in the First Amendment does it say that companies have to do business with iceholes.
The First Amendment has to do with the government telling you to shut up.
I hope The Donald pays enough billable hours for someone to explain it to him.
If this guy becomes President, would his way of ruling the country be to sue other countries whenever they do something to displease his coiffed noggin’?
I’m sure there is a morals clause. Also the last season of the show did okay but prior to that show’s ratings have been tanking fast. The juice was no longer worth the squeeze. It was time to let it go. They should have cancelled it years ago. The show i snow relegated to the summer anyway.
Good, I hope he gets a conservative jury and wins and fks up these pathetic propagandists. I would give him the win just to destroy that disgusting media outlet.
0ver 14 million undocumented Mexicans and South Americans in this country, the most powerless people in America watching people’s kids and doing menial jobs, and a Trump characterizes them as rapists? 14 million of them? And then a Spanish speaking channel wants nothing to do with him and he’s shocked?
Politically, unless he feels he can win with zero Hispanic and Latino votes, he’s a tone deaf idiot.
I hope that everyone know that when he said Mexican not only he was been racist but he was talking about every single person that look Spanish or latin and of course he going to fight for MUN most of the girls that win that contes are Spanish and latin women. U really hope univision win that battle
Now that he clearly wasn’t doing . He made an outrageous statement it smelled like racism but he didn’t say somethin g actually racist. He was talking about ileagals coming from the border. It’s not just Mexicans and Hispanics coming through that border these days dude
May Good Triumph. May Trump Triumph!
Back on planet Earth, Univision terminated it’s business relationship with a man who called its audience a pack of lying, thieving rapists. Guess the free market isn’t so great when it hits you, right Donny?
Living in the great state of Texas I can personally tell you that Trump isn’t all wrong with his comments he made. Try living here and seeing your state turn into a different country, it’s the saddest thing ever. I hope Univision, Macy’s, and NBC all lose money to Trump!
one of the worst hate crimes to ever take place on U.S. soil,”
While this was a pointless & tragic act of violence, it’s definitely not the worst. The World has always been marked by savage acts by mankind.
No ASSHOLE, YOU and only YOU, abandoned these 50 woman. If you would have kept your mouth shut and not made the comments you did, you would not have all of us AGAINST your bully ass.
Hopefully you will lose and by chance you don’t, may this be appealed again and again to your disadvantage.
Man you make me sick!
First of all Donald Trump is a billionaire, he has a lot of connections and some kick ass lawyers. don’t underestimate him, Univision is gonna regret breaking the contract. Racist comments or not, they broke a signed agreement. Also I don’t see the president of Mexico making a big fuss out of this rant he had. People need to let it go, no matter what he won’t win the presidency.