It is almost certainly too late for Trump to stop Stormy Daniels’s ‘60 Minutes’ interview

President Trump is probably powerless to stop “60 Minutes” from airing an interview with the porn star who claims to have had an affair with him, according to legal experts.

.. “She’s already given the interview,” said defamation attorney Megan C. Deluhery, a partner at Todd & Weld in Boston. “CBS would need to be a party to the suit to be restrained from airing the interview, and since the obligation on Ms. Daniels arose as part of a private settlement, I don’t see much legal basis to enjoin CBS

.. Although a judge might rule that Daniels must stay quiet until the lawsuit reaches a conclusion, an injunction would not undo the interview she gave last week or compel CBS to pretend it didn’t happen.

.. To thwart “60 Minutes,” Trump would need to secure a separate order against CBS — a prior restraint of speech that legal precedent suggests is unconstitutional.

.. the president’s lawyers would have to convince a court that “whatever is about to be aired would cause immediate, irreparable harm to the U.S. If the Pentagon Papers didn’t meet that standard, can’t imagine that this ’60 Minutes’ segment with Stormy Daniels would.”

.. Trump can hope that the prospect of a libel suit will scare CBS out of airing the interview, or he can hope that further reporting will cause “60 Minutes” to conclude that Daniels is not credible and thus abandon the interview for journalistic reasons. Otherwise, he probably cannot keep the interview off the air.

Former ‘Post’ Executive Editor Ben Bradlee On Publishing The Pentagon Papers

Bradlee served as executive editor of The Washington Post from 1968 to 1991. In 1995, he told Fresh Air about his decision to publish the top secret documents related to U.S. policy making in Vietnam.

Bradlee says that the Post had to publish because:
  1. To have held back, when the New York Times published, would be to have
    • ceded the right to publish and
    • make the Washington Post an ally of the Whitehouse and
    • confined the Post to a low status
  2. Built up the Prestige of the Post

Five Reasons the Comey Affair Is Worse Than Watergate

A journalist who covered Nixon’s fall 45 years ago explains why the current challenge to America may be more severe—and the democratic system less capable of handling it.

the worst version of what Nixon and his allies were attempting to do—namely, to find incriminating or embarrassing information about political adversaries ranging from Democratic Party Chairman Lawrence O’Brien to Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg—was not as bad as what came afterward.

.. attacks by an authoritarian foreign government on the fundamentals of American democracy, by interfering with an election

.. as part of a larger strategy that included parallel interference in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and elsewhere.

.. meant to destroy trust in democracy

.. But even in his stonewalling, Nixon paid lip service to the concepts of due process and check and balances.

.. Stennis compromise

.. he wanted to act as if he was doing so while sticking to some recognizable rules.

 .. Nothing Donald Trump has done, on the campaign trail or in office, has expressed awareness of, or respect for, established rules.