Liberal Think Tank Refuses to Retract Report After Trump’s $5B Lawsuit Threat

The report suggested Trump’s National Guard deployments have failed to reduce urban crime.

National Guard

A letter to the Center for American Progress sets a 5 p.m. Friday deadline for the think tank to retract the report, apologize to the president and compensate him. (AP Photo/Tierney L. Cross)

Lawyers for President Donald Trump are threatening to file a $5 billion dollar defamation lawsuit against a liberal think tank if it does not retract a report critical of the White House’s deployment of National Guard troops to cities across the country.

According to a cease-and-desist letter sent this week, the president has taken issue with an analysis conducted by the Center for American Progress that found the deployments failed to reduce urban crime in the way Trump has repeatedly asserted.

In a statement published on Friday, CAP President and CEO Neera Tanden said the organization stands by its report and will not be taking it down.