A federal judge in Atlanta has tossed a defamation lawsuit the Donald Trump campaign committee filed against CNN over comments a contributor made in an 2019 opinion article, ruling that the campaign failed to state a plausible claim that CNN was motivated by "actual malice" in publishing it. 

The article, "Soliciting dirt on your opponents from a foreign government is a crime. Mueller should have charged Trump campaign officials with it," took issue with former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and posited that the Trump campaign had "assessed the potential risks and benefits of again seeking Russia's help in 2020 and has decided to leave that option on the table."