Donald Trump Co-Campaign Manager Chris LaCivita sues The Daily Beast for defamation

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Chris LaCivita, the Co-Campaign Manager for President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, is suing The Daily Beast.

The suit stems from reporting by Michael Isikoff, who freelanced for the outlet and reported on campaign finance information that LaCivita says was false and defamatory.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Richmond Division, seeks punitive and compensatory damages, including compensation equal to three times “the damages Plaintiffs sustained,” as well as attorneys fees. The lawsuit does not specify damages, and asks for a jury award.

While an exact amount isn’t mentioned in the lawsuit, it says that “it is estimated that it would cost millions of dollars” to repair LaCivita’s reputation “as a result of the defamatory articles.”

The lawsuit says LaCivita “suffered special damages, including damage to his reputation and loss of business income” as a result of reporting that LaCivita was paid $22 million for his work with the Trump campaign over the course of two years, a figure later revised down to $19.2 million.

The lawsuit says the fees cited in The Daily Beast article in question paid to LaCivita represent “gross expenditures, not Mr. LaCivita’s personal compensation.” Instead, most of the money was “used for campaign advertising expenses,” the lawsuit says.

It further alleges that the “defamatory reporting created the false impression that Mr. LaCivita was personally profiting excessively from his work on the campaign and that he was prioritizing personal gain over the campaign’s success,” which the lawsuit says caused “substantial professional and personal damages.”

Other impacts, per the suit, include “emotional distress, out-of-pocket costs, and damage to his business and professional reputation and standing.”

The lawsuit says there are campaign finance records that demonstrate the error in The Daily Beast’s reporting and that despite a letter sent to the publication seeking “a correction and retraction” based on “publicly available data,” the outlet failed to correct the record.

Lawyers for LaCivita write that The Daily Beast published the articles in question “with actual malice” and relied on “unreliable information provided by Corey Lewandowski and others in a blatant act of revenge against Mr. LaCivita and the Republican National Committee.”

Lewandowski ran Trump’s 2016 campaign, but was dismissed. He later rejoined Trump’s team in the 2024 campaign, but was sidelined by LaCivita and other Co-Campaign Manager Susie Wiles, who now serves as Trump’s Chief of Staff.

In addition to information in print on The Daily Beast website, the lawsuit also cites a Daily Beast Podcast first aired on Oct. 23, 2024, that discussed the reporting. The podcast has since been taken down, but the written articles remain.

First reported on Oct. 15, 2024, Isikoff wrote that LaCivita had “raked in $22 million and counting.” The article juxtaposed LaCivita’s alleged compensation to that of Wiles, who Isikoff reported earned $685,000 through her consulting firm through monthly retainers ranging from $25,000 to $30,000. It further contrasted the earnings with Kamala Harris Campaign Manager Jen O’Malley Dillon, who reportedly earned a monthly salary from the campaign of $13,442.

Isikoff included a quote from an email disputing his claims, which called the story “fabricated nonsense” that was “cooked up by talentless grifters who lack the integrity and skill to contribute to President Trump’s continued electoral success.”

Isikoff further reported that “a senior campaign official” said the amounts reported in campaign finance reports were “misleading” because much of the fees were “pass through” payments for other vendors, not personal compensation to LaCivita.

The same day, The Daily Beast Executive Editor Hugh Dougherty penned an analysis citing Isikoff’s reporting, calling LaCivita’s response to the article “a bare-knuckle style that makes him one of the most fearsome figures in American politics.” But despite the strong language, Dougherty wrote that LaCivita did not “directly deny the huge sums of money revealed by the Beast.”

The Daily Beast has stood by its reporting, calling the lawsuit “meritless and a transparent attempt to intimidate the Beast and silence the independent press,” according to The Associated Press.