Trump campaign manager quietly drops defamation suit against the Daily Beast

A manager for Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential election bid has abandoned a high-profile lawsuit against the Daily Beast, 10 months after complaining the news outlet had defamed him in reporting on campaign expenditures.Chris LaCivita, who co-managed the campaign that led to Trump’s second presidency, quietly dropped his legal action on Friday, the Daily Beast said. The outlet said it had not retracted the story, made no apology and had not made any cash payment to LaCivita.The lawsuit alleged the Daily Beast fabricated claims about his campaign compensation and deliberately damaged his professional reputation in its reporting about millions of dollars LaCivita’s company received from the Trump campaign.LaCivita said the Daily Beast’s reporting had created a “false impression that he was personally profiting excessively” and prioritized personal gain over campaign success. The lawsuit did not specify damages sought but said: “It is estimated that it would cost millions of dollars to repair Mr LaCivita’s reputation.”Despite that bullishness, the lawsuit will no longer go ahead. It represents quite a turnaround from LaCivita, who last March said of the legal action, “Fuck around and Find Out,” and claimed: “I’m really looking forward to making my case in front of a jury.”The lawsuit centered on a series of reports from the Daily Beast which suggested LaCivita had “raked in” huge payments, including a piece by the journalist Michael Isikoff that was headlined “Trump in Cash Crisis – As Campaign Chief’s $22m Pay Revealed”.LaCivita said the reporting harmed his personal reputation. The lawsuit claimed the multimillion-dollar figure represented gross campaign advertising expenditures, not personal income.After initial correction demands from LaCivita’s legal team, the Daily Beast modified its reporting, reducing the claimed compensation to $19.2m and clarifying that funds went to LaCivita’s consulting firm. However, the lawsuit argues these changes did not adequately address the fundamental misrepresentation.LaCivita’s lawsuit against the Daily Beast was one front in a broader pattern of legal standoffs pitting Trump and those in his orbit against media organizations – often centering on defamation complaints. Trump and his allies have spent years resorting to litigation to challenge journalistic reporting they perceive to be hostile or inaccurate.As the Daily Beast noted, The Atlantic had reported in November 2024 that Trump furiously questioned LaCivita about the monetary figure the latter would eventually sue over while they were both on a campaign plane. Trump told LaCivita, “You should sue those bastards,” and would later teasingly refer to him as “my $22m man”, according to The Atlantic’s reporting.