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Former President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Thursday against CBS Broadcasting Inc. and CBS Interactive Inc., demanding $10 billion in damages over the network’s “60 Minutes” interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. The lawsuit was immediately condemned by First Amendment lawyers, who called it “frivolous and dangerous.”

In the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas, Trump’s legal counsel asserted that CBS’s “60 Minutes” interview with Harris and associated programming were “illegal and partisan election acts.” voter interference” intended to “mislead the public.” and try to tip the balance” of the presidential election in their favor.

The lawsuit also says Trump is seeking to have the network “publicly publish the full, unedited transcript of the (interview).”

Currently, the U.S. District Court in North Texas assigns cases so that any case filed in its Amarillo Division is automatically assigned to Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee.

It was unclear why the lawsuit was filed in the Texas court, but it could be a case of “judge purchases” the practice of strategically filing cases in courts where lawsuits are almost certain to be heard by judges perceived as sympathetic to the litigants.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the show’s interview with Harris was severely poorly edited by CBS at the direction of the campaign, and has called on the network to “you lose your license.”

“To paper over the weakness of Kamala’s ‘word salad,’ CBS used its national platform on 60 Minutes to walk the line between exercising judgment in reporting and deceptively manipulating the news,” the document states.

Trump’s legal counsel argued that “CBS’s misconduct was unconscionable because it amounts to a blatant attempt to interfere in the 2024 US presidential election.”

A CBS spokesperson said Trump’s claims against “60 Minutes” are false.

“The interview was not manipulated; and 60 MINUTES did not hide any part of the Vice President’s response to the question in question. 60 MINUTES presented the interview fairly to inform the audience and not mislead them. “The lawsuit Trump filed today against CBS is completely baseless and we will vigorously defend it,” the spokesperson continued.

The lawsuit was immediately criticized by prominent First Amendment lawyers, who called it absurd and baseless.

“This is a frivolous and dangerous attempt by a politician to control the media. The Supreme Court has made it very clear: the First Amendment leaves it up to journalists – and not the courts, the government or candidates for public office – to decide how to report the news,” said First Amendment attorney Charles Tobin, of the Ballard Spahr law firm. .

Floyd Abrams, the First Amendment lawyer of Pentagon Papers fame, agreed, telling CNN: “The First Amendment was written to protect the press from precisely that kind of litigation. Mr. Trump may not agree with this or that coverage of him, but the First Amendment allows the press to decide how to cover elections, not the candidates seeking public office.”

Rebecca Tushnet, Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment Law at Harvard Law School, put it more simply: “It’s ridiculous garbage and should be mocked.”

Trump mentioned the lawsuit during his rally in Henderson, Nevada, on Thursday, saying, “In honor of you, I just sued CBS today.”

CNN previously reported on Trump stepped back from a planned interview with “60 Minutes” in early October.

In a statement, the Trump campaign denied agreeing to the interview.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.