"Trump: See You In Court!" Topic

Maher: gulp.
link
Shouldn't have run his mouth on tape…

Wasted court time and money by the Ultimate Waste of Space. I hope Trump has to pay court costs for this ridiculous pile of .

A joke's a joke, especially on a COMEDIAN'S show!

Serves Maher right.

I don't care who you are, or your "leanings"; when you talk smack you need to assume responsibility for what you say…..

Dave

Sounds like Bill Maher will be doling out some cash.

Trump has so many lawyers on retainer, so he has decided to make them work for their living, instead of sitting on their briefs.

Can both lose, and be banned from TV forever?

Maher deserves whatever he gets in my opinion. Trump is only marginally better.

Why not have an MMA cage match between the two, put it on pay per view and donate the proceeds to a Veterans' organization?

We'd all win.

Sigh. Both need to grow up.

Since what Maher was asking about is biologically impossible, he was obviously attempting to make a joke.

Was it funny? Who cares? Trump taking him to court is just The Donald being a d*ck.

I vote for the "ban both from TV" option.

Utterly ridiculous and yes a waste of the courts time. Hate to break it to those of you who think that Maher deserves to be sued as the law is on his side in this regard. While a private person can sue for damages of libel such is not the case for a "public" person which Trump clearly is. It is understood a public person waives certain rights to privacy and yes, being lampooned, ridiculed, made the subject of parody are all fair game. The courts do have limits in this and some entities such as The Star, and Enquirer have been successfully sued by celebrities but only in circumstances where said public person can prove exceptional harm was caused.

Trump cannot make such a claim; although I am sure his attorneys will give it a good try. This is also a situation where the "reasonable person" doctrine would apply. Bill Maher is a comedian that engages in regular lampooning of public figures both on stage and on his television show. Maher's comments about Trump's progenitors can therefore not be taken as a serious bet much less a contract which is the angle Trump is attempting to make. No, this is a sad case of a sad person that has more money than sense and has become a caricature of himself trying to stifle free speech because he has the money to do so. Every American should be offended by such an obvious attempt at censorship.

WhiteManticore,

From my reading of the article (naw, in typical internet fashion, I didn't bother to research the matter further – ain't worth my time…), the issue isn't: "Trump was libeled" but that: "Maher made a bet, lost, and welshed on it".

Now, where I come from, offering a bet is a serious business, and saying "it was only a joke" *after* you lose is bad form.

But I agree, Media Dawghouse 'em both.

Thunderdome Mk II- "Two go in and none come out!"

Satire and parody are protected apeech.

Hustler v. Jerry Falwell: Hustler ran an ad parody that portrayed Falwell as having had a drunken sexual encounter with his own mother in an outhouse and Falwell sued. The court ruled against Falwell, stating that no reasonable person would believe the situation depicted in the ad to be true. Falwell did win damages for emotional distress, but the damages were later thrown out on appeal to the US Supreme Court.

The exception would be if someone knowingly made a false statement, with malice, that a reasonable person could believe was true.

So, even if Trump could prove that Maher acted with malice, no reasonable person could be expected to believe that Trump is an orangu-man hybrid. (I know, I'm kind of going out on a limb here.)

Although . . . I could definitely see Trump pouring millions into an effort to create a human-orangutan hybrid, just to prove it was possible and thereby win the case. You know he's just mad enough to try.

:)

This is our punishment for not seeing the wisdom of giving him the Republication nomination for President, and not taking him as seriously as he deserves.
Then, he would have lost, and would have never been heard from again.

Hey, it's not POLTICS!
It's a joke, and thus protected!

Then, he would have lost, and would have never been heard from again.

John, do you honestly believe Trump will ever "never be heard from again," no matter what happens to him? I suspect that, even after he dies, he'll have his lawyers broadcast prerecorded statements every month or so on a variety of topics, just to keep massaging his undead ego.

I don't think there has ever been much comedy on Maher's show.

Battle of the jerks. If they manage to do each other in we all win.
As for civil court. Is anything of any importance ever done there? It's not going away so someone might as well have fun. In this case, the attorneys for either side.
I'm no fan of either man. But in this case I think Bill Maher may just know what he's talking about. Experience being so instructive, and all.

I interpret it as Maher having a laugh at Trump's expense and Trump having a laugh at Maher's. Trump's joke just happens to cost more— literally.

Let the lawyers battle it out. If Trump loses, he will be humiliated. But if he wins, he'll be insufferable…

Damon.

But if he wins, he'll be insufferable…

They BOTH are insufferable already.

Reminds me of the bet the Geraldo Rivera made during the President Clinton perjury investigation.

Geraldo stated that he would pay $10,000 USD to anyone who could show were somebody when to prison for lying to Congress under oath about an adulterous affair.

A researcher did just that and found three people who did jail time for doing just what he said. When approached for payment, Geraldo welched on the bet, refusing to pay up.

The issue dogged him for some time as it was repeatedly brought up that he had not paid off.

Eventually, his network paid the $10,000 USD to get the bad press to go away.

It was never brough up to courts, just the court of public opinion.

It would have been easier to have called Trump of being a Zombie and then have him ( Trump) have to prove he is not dead.

If anything else Trump could keep others from running their lips in the future even if he loses. I have seen my company spend 400k to win a law suit that only involved a 25k claim. If you get the reputation of not laying down and fighting every time lawyers stop comming after you and it saves you money in the future. Same principle here. Trump probably has more money to waste the Maher. Just saying don't really care either way.

LOL, what a buffoon!

My money's on Maher.