Although the Supreme Court has given substantial protection under the First Amendment to those who inadvertently make false statements in public debate, the Court in its landmark 1964 decision in New York Times v. Sullivan made perfectly clear that even a public official can sue for libel if another individual makes a false and defamatory statement about him, if the person who made the statement acted either with knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth.

In other words, under American law, Trump didn’t need to “open up our libel laws” to sue someone for making a “purposely negative and horrible and false” statement about him. All he had to do was to sue. That he was running for president of the United States and obviously had no awareness of one of the most famous constitutional decisions in American history was stunning.

Now, though, we are presented with an ironic and intriguing situation. With Trump’s early morning tweet several days ago accusing former President Barack Obama of unlawfully tapping his phone calls “during the very sacred election process,”and adding that “This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!,” Trump unambiguously accused former President Barack Obama of criminal conduct. In so doing, Trump committed the quintessential libel

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