David McCraw
Vice President and Assistant General Counsel
620 Eighth
Avenue
New York,
NY 10018
tel 212.556-4031
fax 212.556-4634
mccraw@nytimes.com
October
13, 2016
VIA
ELECTRONIC DELIVERY
Marc
E. Kasowitz, Esq.
Kasowitz,
Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP
1633
Broadway
New
York, NY 10019-6799
Re:
Demand for Retraction
Dear
Mr. Kasowitz:
I
write in response to your letter of October 12, 2016 to Dean Baquet concerning your
client Donald Trump, the Republican Party nominee for President of the United States.
You write concerning our article "Two Women Say Donald Trump Touched Them Inappropriately"
and label the article as "libel per se." You ask that we "remove
it from [our] website, and issue a full and immediate retraction and apology."
We decline to do so.
The
essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one's reputation. Mr.
Trump has bragged about his non-consensual sexual touching of women. He has bragged
about intruding on beauty pageant contestants in their dressing rooms. He acquiesced
to a radio host's request to discuss Mr. Trump's own daughter as a "piece of
ass." Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward
to report on Mr. Trump's unwanted advances. Nothing in our article has had the slightest
effect the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already
created for himself.
But
there is a larger and much more important point here. The women quoted in our story
spoke out on an issue of national importance - indeed, an issue that Mr. Trump himself
discussed with the whole nation watching during Sunday night's presidential debate.
Our reporters diligently worked to confirm the women's accounts. They provided readers
with Mr. Trump's response, including his forceful denial of reports. It would have been a disservice not just to
our readers but to democracy itself to silence their voices. We did what the law
allows: We published newsworthy information about a subject of deep public concern.
If Mr. Trump disagrees, if
he believes that American citizens had no right to hear what these women had to
say and that the law of this country forces us and those who would dare to criticize
him to stand silent or be punished, we welcome the opportunity to have a court set
him straight.
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