title:  Trump Is Trying To MUZZLE His Sexual Assault Victims In The Most Ludicrous Way Imaginable
text: Yesterday, The New York Times ran a story in which they gave moving accounts of two women who say that Donald Trump sexually assaulted them. Trump maintains that his boasts about being allowed to assault women because he s got star power were just words, and that he s never done such a thing. In a sorry attempt to maintain the illusion that he s a good person, Trump has had his lawyers send the Times an official cease-and-desist, claiming the story amounts to libel.The strange thing is that the bulk of this letter appears to be directed at the women that the Times spoke to than it is to the Times itself: [Y]ou apparently performed an entirely inadequate investigation to test the veracity of these false and malicious allegations, including why these two individuals waited, in one case, 11 years, and, in another case, more than three decades, before deciding to come forward with these false and defamatory statements. And there it is. Assassinating the characters of the victims by saying that, if they d really been assaulted sexually, they d have come forward right away, is a very typical ploy for those trying to defend themselves against such allegations. But there s still nothing in there about what, specifically, is false in the Times  story and how they know the Times knowingly published a false story.Trump s victims could all find their names and characters dragged through the mud because of this, and make no mistake, he will do that as loudly as he can. The fear of having that happen, and of not being believed, keeps many sexual assault victims from coming forward.And that could easily be why Trump is doing this. However, his method appears to be two-fold: In addition to intimidating and bullying his victims, he s also intimidating and bullying press outlets. The hope there would be that they won t give a voice to any more of his victims out of fear of getting sued.This isn t the only absurdity in the letter, but it is the most damning, given its possible intent. The letter also makes it political instead of naming specific falsehoods, which is outright ridiculous if this is a serious cease-and-desist: Your article is reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se. It is apparent from, among other things, the timing of the article, that it is nothing more than a politically-motivated effort to defeat Mr. Trump s candidacy Clearly, The New York Times is willing to provide a platform to anyone wishing to smear Mr. Trump s name and reputation prior to the election irrespective of whether the alleged statements have any basis in fact. Really? That s a hell of a thing to say in a cease-and-desist. The letter itself is politically motivated   it s actually quite difficult to believe that an actual lawyer wrote this baloney. Here s what a strong cease-and-desist letter should contain, and this is a template of a decent cease-and-desist. This idiocy meets none of the conditions it needs to.CNNMoney reports that Trump has also threatened the Palm Beach Post for publishing a separate story from yet another victim. Besides that, the Trump campaign told Times reporter Megan Twohey that he would sue if they published the story. She received her own letter yesterday afternoon and was called a  disgusting human being. A lawsuit against the Times would uncover everything and probably sink Trump entirely, because these allegations are the tip of the iceberg. He knows that. But, if nothing else, the discovery phase of this would be interesting.You can read the letter in full here:BREAKING: Trump demands retraction from @nytimes, threatens lawsuit.https://t.co/GBwomM7tgA pic.twitter.com/Htm9uaEsne  Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) October 13, 2016Featured image via Scott Olson/Getty Images