Trump threatens $5 billion suit over Guard crime report

President Trump’s legal team has threatened to sue the Center for American Progress for at least $5 billion unless the liberal think tank retracts and apologizes for a report that found National Guard deployments did not measurably reduce violent crime.

In an Aug. 17 letter obtained by CBS News, Trump lawyer Alejandro Brito said the July report contained materially false statements intended to damage the president. He demanded that the organization retract the report, apologize and compensate Trump by 5 p.m. Friday, warning that failure to do so could lead to a defamation lawsuit seeking at least $5 billion in damages.

The report, released July 13, examined National Guard deployments in Washington, D.C., Memphis and Los Angeles and concluded that they “had no measurable effect on violent crime, homicides, or gun victimizations.” The Guardian reported that the report also cited an estimated $1.7 billion cost for the deployments and compared falling crime rates in cities with and without National Guard interventions, finding the rates of decline were not statistically different. It said violent crime began falling before Trump took office in 2025.

Brito argued that the statements at issue conveyed to readers that Trump “knowingly deceived the American people, manipulated crime statistics for political advantage, exploited public fear, abused military and executive authority for an ulterior purpose, staged a sham law enforcement operation, and then lied about its success,” The Guardian reported.

Kevin Metz, an attorney for the Center for American Progress, rejected the demand in a response letter obtained by CBS News. “This is utterly absurd: truth is not and cannot be defamation,” Metz wrote. “The right to disagree with the government, debate policies, and express dissent over policy choices is central to a functioning American democracy.”

The center also said the report and related commentary concerned crime statistics, causality and federal government actions, not Trump personally. “In addition to being true, these statements cannot defame President Trump because they are not about him,” the organization wrote, according to The Guardian.

CAP President and CEO Neera Tanden said the organization stands by its research. “This threatened lawsuit’s attack on facts and evidence is baseless,” 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.”

Tanden added: “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.”

The Trump administration first deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles in June 2025 to protect federal immigration officials and other federal law enforcement amid heated protests over immigration raids. Two months later, Trump announced a deployment to Washington, saying it was needed “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” Deployments to Memphis and New Orleans followed.

The FBI reported last week that violent crime rates were down nationwide in 2025.

CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said Trump would face a high legal bar if he sued. “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 said. “It’s very unlikely that a dispute about statistics would give rise to a defamation claim.”

Levinson also said Trump would have to show that the challenged statements were reasonably understood to be about him, rather than broader criticism of his administration.

The Guardian reported that Brito’s letter threatened a suit by Trump in his personal capacity, not on behalf of the federal government. When asked for comment, the White House replied: “Can you send us the letter?” CBS News said it had reached out to Brito for comment.