[Hoot Gibson]

Cheri Jacobus files a defamation suit against Donald Trump and Corey Lewandowski. Trump's unfavorable rating among women cannot go much higher, but this lawsuit will not help. This was another unforced error made by the Trump campaign and another mistake that probably could have been made to go away with a public apology a few months ago.

GOP operative sues Trump, Lewandowski for defamation

A veteran Republican operative filed a defamation suit against Donald Trump and his campaign manager in New York on Monday over statements the pair made earlier this year portraying her as a spurned job-seeker with a grudge against the Republican front-runner.

The suit, brought in New York County by communications strategist Cheri Jacobus, seeks $4 million in damages as well as unspecified punitive damages and court costs. It alleges that Trump and campaign manager Corey Lewandowski falsely and knowingly impugned her professional reputation in retaliation for her criticisms of Trump’s performance as a candidate.

The case again casts a cloud of legal trouble over Trump’s campaign just four days after a prosecutor in Florida announced his decision not to pursue a criminal battery case against Lewandowski for an unrelated March incident in which he grabbed Michelle Fields, then a reporter for Breitbart, by the arm.
The complaint stems from comments Lewandowski and Trump made in late January and early February following Jacobus’ January 26 assertion on CNN that Trump, in interviews and debates, “comes off like a third grader faking his way through an oral report on current affairs.”