By Tom Hals
2026年2月13日 上午11:06 UTC 更新于7分钟前
节点运行失败
前美国总统唐纳德·特朗普于2026年1月29日在美国华盛顿特区出席纪录片《梅拉尼娅》首映式时发表讲话。路透社/Kylie Cooper 购买授权，新标签页打开
- 摘要
- 公司
- 特朗普长期以来利用诉讼回击批评者
- 即便身为总统，他仍继续提起民事诉讼
- 最高法院1997年驳回克林顿的诉讼豁免权请求
- 特朗普律师提出”临时豁免权规则”
特拉华州威尔明顿，2月13日（路透社） – 2024年11月特朗普赢得连任后不久，其律师就向特拉华州一名州法官表示，针对他社交媒体公司两位联合创始人提起的诉讼应暂停审理，因为在任总统没有时间处理民事诉讼。
特朗普的律师请求法官洛里·威尔（Lori Will）”承认一项临时豁免权规则，以保护总统免受州民事诉讼的干扰、分心和骚扰”。原告指控称，他们因成功推出Truth Social平台而未获得约定的报酬。
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但在法官就豁免权问题做出裁决之前，特朗普似乎通过自行对爱荷华州《得梅因纪事报》（Des Moines Register）提起民事诉讼削弱了自己的论点。
几十年来一直利用诉讼回击批评者的特朗普，随后又以个人名义提起了至少五起诉讼，索赔金额达数千亿美元。
这些诉讼包括：针对图书出版商企鹅兰登书屋（Penguin Random House）的诽谤诉讼；针对三家新闻机构——《纽约时报》（The New York Times，NYT.N）、新标签页打开、《华尔街日报》（The Wall Street Journal，NWSA.O）、新标签页打开和英国广播公司（BBC）的诽谤诉讼；指控摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase，JPM.N）非法关闭其账户的诉讼；以及指控美国国税局（U.S. Internal Revenue Service）未能阻止其纳税申报单向媒体披露的诉讼。
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这些媒体公司和摩根大通均否认存在不当行为。美国国税局尚未就该诉讼发表评论或在法庭上作出回应。
最终，威尔法官于9月驳回了针对特朗普的特拉华州案件，但并非基于豁免权理由。
用特朗普的论点回击他
一些被他起诉的对象正试图利用这位共和党总统的豁免权主张来反击他，称如果特朗普声称自己太忙而无法应对针对他的诉讼，那么他就不应被允许起诉他人。
密歇根大学法学院教授理查德·普里默斯（Richard Primus）在谈到特朗普的豁免权立场时表示：”这就好比说，’我们要打棒球，但只有我能击球’。”
美国最高法院在1997年涉及民主党前总统比尔·克林顿的裁决中就总统民事诉讼豁免权问题作出了裁决，宣布总统不享有豁免权。大法官们允许一名前阿肯色州政府雇员保拉·琼斯（Paula Jones）对克林顿提起诽谤和性骚扰诉讼。
最高法院在2024年涉及特朗普的裁决中认定，总统在履行公职时对刑事起诉享有广泛豁免权，但该裁决未涉及民事诉讼豁免权问题。
在特朗普的一起诉讼中，最新的反击方是民调机构安·塞尔泽（Ann Selzer）。2024年12月，特朗普与《得梅因纪事报》及其出版商一同起诉了她，原因是在选举前的一项民调显示其民主党对手卡玛拉·哈里斯在爱荷华州领先，而特朗普最终赢得了该州。
塞尔泽请求暂停诉讼直至特朗普任期结束，但未获成功。
被告律师辩称，特朗普有滥用法院推进政治议程的历史，其豁免权主张可能会给他提供一个新的武器来对付媒体。他们表示，特朗普可以在自己提起的诉讼中要求被告提供私人文件和证词（即所谓的证据开示），但当被要求提供证据时又可以援引豁免权。
《得梅因纪事报》律师尼克·克兰菲尔德（Nick Klinefeldt）在1月30日的听证会上对爱荷华州法官斯科特·贝蒂（Scott Beattie）说：”这将导致单方面的证据开示，对媒体进行单方面调查。”
法官承认自己强制总统遵守司法命令的权力有限。
贝蒂法官说：”我可以对每项违规行为处以500美元罚款，甚至可能判处6个月监禁。但我相当确定，这会遭到强烈反对。”
特朗普的律师艾伦·奥斯特伦（Alan Ostergren）在听证会上表示，总统打算遵守贝蒂法官发出的任何命令，否则法官可以驳回特朗普的诉讼。
贝蒂周二驳回了塞尔泽要求暂停特朗普诉讼的请求。
“被诽谤和冤枉”
特朗普的法律团队在发给路透社的声明中表示，豁免权对总统职位至关重要，认为其在《美国宪法》中有明确规定，并得到法律先例的支持。
“此外，特朗普总统代表并与所有美国人一起，拥有固有的宪法权利，要求那些诽谤和冤枉他的人承担责任。与激进自由派及其媒体同伙的愿望相反，总统在宣誓就职后并未放弃这项权利。”特朗普团队表示。
到目前为止，法院都支持特朗普。
在特拉华州和佛罗里达州的州法院，涉及他社交媒体公司的诉讼中，他被驳回为被告，尽管这些法院在判决中未涉及豁免权问题。
除了爱荷华州法官的裁决外，佛罗里达州上诉法院也驳回了要求暂停特朗普2022年对普利策奖委员会提起的诽谤诉讼的类似请求。特朗普在该委员会拒绝撤销2018年因报道俄罗斯干预2016年大选及与他竞选活动的关联而联合授予《华盛顿邮报》和《纽约时报》的奖项后提起诉讼。
上诉法院表示，如果特朗普没有时间处理普利策奖诉讼，他可以自行撤诉——而作为被告时他无法这么做。
普里默斯教授说：”唐纳德·特朗普是个令人讨厌的诉讼人，而总统职位使其诉讼对目标被告极具胁迫性。如果他对某件事有合法的法律诉求，他可以提起诉讼并请求法院暂停诉讼程序，直至其卸任。这并不意味着他需要更快地获得赔偿。”
汤姆·哈尔在特拉华州威尔明顿报道；由Noeleen Walder和Will Dunham编辑
我们的标准：汤森路透信任原则。新标签页打开
Trump: Too busy to be a defendant but plenty of time to sue
By Tom Hals
February 13, 2026 11:06 AM UTC Updated 7 mins ago
节点运行失败
President Donald Trump speaks on the day of the premiere of the documentary film “Melania” at in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 29, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
- Summary
- Companies
- Trump long has used litigation to hit back at critics
- He continues to pursue civil suits even as president
- Supreme Court in 1997 denied Clinton immunity from suit
- Trump lawyer suggests a “rule of temporary immunity”
WILMINGTON, Delaware, Feb 13 (Reuters) – Soon after winning reelection in November 2024, Donald Trump’s lawyers told a state judge in Delaware that a lawsuit brought against him by two co-founders of his social media company should be put on hold because a sitting president does not have time to deal with civil litigation.
Trump’s lawyers asked the judge, Lori Will, to “recognize a rule of temporary immunity that protects the Presidency from the diversions, distractions and harassment of state civil litigation.” The plaintiffs alleged that they were denied their agreed-upon payout for successfully launching Truth Social.
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But before the judge could decide the immunity matter, Trump seemed to undercut his own argument by filing a civil lawsuit of his own against an Iowa newspaper, the Des Moines Register.
Trump, who for decades has used litigation to hit back at critics, subsequently filed at least five more lawsuits in his personal capacity, seeking tens of billions of dollars.
These were defamation suits targeting a book publisher, Penguin Random House, and three news organizations, the New York Times, opens new tab(NYT.N), opens new tabthe Wall Street Journal(NWSA.O), opens new taband the BBC; a suit accusing a bank, JPMorgan Chase(JPM.N), opens new tabof unlawfully closing his accounts; and a suit accusing the U.S. Internal Revenue Service of unlawfully failing to prevent disclosure of his tax returns to the media.
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The media companies and JPMorgan denied wrongdoing. The IRS has not commented on the lawsuit or responded in court.
Ultimately, the Delaware case against Trump was dismissed by Will in September, but not on immunity grounds.
USING TRUMP’S ARGUMENT AGAINST HIM
Some targets of his litigation are trying to use the Republican president’s immunity claim against him, saying if Trump asserts he is too busy to be burdened by responding to litigation brought against him, he should not be allowed to bring lawsuits against others.
“It’s like saying, ‘We’re going to play baseball and only I get to bat,’” University of Michigan School of Law professor Richard Primus said of Trump’s stance on immunity.
The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on presidential immunity from civil litigation in a 1997 ruling involving Democratic then-President Bill Clinton, declaring they are not immune. The justices let a defamation and sexual harassment lawsuit by a former Arkansas state employee named Paula Jones proceed against Clinton.
The Supreme Court in a 2024 ruling involving Trump found that presidents do have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions taken in office, though that decision did not involve civil litigation.
The latest party in one of the Trump lawsuits to refashion his immunity claim against him is pollster Ann Selzer, who he sued along with the Des Moines Register and its publishers in December 2024 over a preelection poll that had shown his Democratic rival Kamala Harris leading in Iowa, a state that Trump ultimately won.
Selzer sought, unsuccessfully, to have the case put on hold for the duration of Trump’s presidency.
Lawyers for the defendants argued that Trump has a history of misusing the courts for his political agenda, and his immunity claim could give him a new weapon to deploy against the media. Trump could demand private documents and testimony, known as discovery, from the defendants in cases he has filed, but then claim immunity when demands are made on him, they said.
“You would have had one-sided discovery, a unilateral investigation of the press,” the Des Moines Register’s lawyer, Nick Klinefeldt, told Iowa state court Judge Scott Beattie at a January 30 hearing.
The judge acknowledged the limits of his authority to force the president to comply with any judicial order.
“I can issue a fine of $500 per offense and maybe order some jail time of six months,” Beattie said. “But I am fairly certain there’s going to be pushback about that.”
Alan Ostergren, Trump’s attorney, said at the hearing the president intends to comply with any orders Beattie issues and that the judge could dismiss Trump’s lawsuit if he does not.
Beattie on Tuesday denied Selzer’s request to put Trump’s lawsuit on hold.
‘SMEARED AND WRONGED’
Trump’s legal team said in a statement to Reuters that immunity is vital to the presidency, arguing that it is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and supported by legal precedent.
“Further, President Trump, on behalf of, and together with, all Americans, has an inherent Constitutional right to hold those who have smeared and wronged him accountable. Contrary to the wishes of radical liberals and their cohorts in the media, Presidents do not relinquish that right upon taking the oath of office,” the Trump team said.
So far, courts have sided with Trump.
He was dismissed as a defendant in the lawsuits involving his social media company filed in state courts in Delaware and Florida, although those courts did not address the immunity question in their decisions.
In addition to the ruling by the Iowa judge, an appellate court in Florida rejected a similar request to put on hold a defamation suit Trump filed in 2022 against the Pulitzer Prize Board. He sued after the board rejected his request to rescind a prize awarded jointly to the Washington Post and New York Times in 2018 for their coverage of Russian interference in the 2016 election and connections to his campaign.
If Trump does not have the time to devote to his Pulitzer lawsuit, he is free to dismiss the case himself, a step he could not take as a defendant in litigation, that appellate court said.
“Donald Trump is a vexatious litigant,” Primus said, and the presidency makes his lawsuits extremely coercive to the defendants he targets. “If he has a legitimate legal claim for something, he could file a suit and ask the court to stay proceedings until he’s out of office. It’s not like he needs the money sooner.”
Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Will Dunham
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