Patrick Reed Demands Apology from Jake Tapper and Bob Costas, Threatens CNN with $450 Million Lawsuit

An attorney for professional golfer Patrick Reed has threatened CNN with a $450 million lawsuit for airing a segment in which anchor Jake Tapper and sportscaster Bob Costas criticized the Saudi-backed LIV Golf.

The letter from attorney Larry Klayman sent both CNN a letter on Sunday claiming that the network aired a “highly defamatory” segment in which Jake Tapper and Bob Costas discussed the legal battle between the PGA Tour and LIV. Klayman also sent a letter to Bloomberg over an article that “detailed how LIV was accused of “using its U.S. lawsuit against PGA to ‘build an intelligence file’ on families of 9/11 victims who have been critical of the kingdom and its new professional golf circuit,'” according to Radar Online.

The letter to CNN was reportedly addressed to Jake Tapper, Bob Costas, new CNN CEO Chris Licht, and CNN general counsel David Vigilante, threatening to sue “if an on-air public apology is not immediately made to Mr. Reed.” Klayman also demanded that the “broadcast [be] removed and retracted from CNN’s websites, streaming services and other forms of publication, in order to mitigate the damage which they three have caused.” The letter even went as far as to say that discipline should be “meted out to Tapper and Costas.”

Klayman’s letter also claimed that the broadcast was “also designed to incite ridicule, hatred and violence against LIV Golf players.”

Though Tapper did not name Reed in his segment, he did say that LIV earnings were the equivalent of “blood money.”

“Last year, with that money, they snagged several top PGA players to come on board,” Tapper said. “The human-rights-challenged Saudis did this by offering these players quite a bit of money. A lot of money. Blood money? Sure, maybe. A lot of it.”

“The broadcast republishes with reckless disregard for the truth, a prior Bloomberg article,” the letter read.

Klayman said that his client may seek “damages well in excess of $450,000,000 dollars which includes compensatory, actual, special and punitive damages.”

CNN has issued a statement calling the lawsuit “frivolous.”

“This is a frivolous lawsuit, whose aim is to chill free speech and intimidate journalists from covering important stories about the Saudi government and the Saudi-backed LIV golf tournament,” a CNN spokesperson said. “CNN will aggressively defend its reporting, which did not even mention the plaintiff in its coverage.”

absolutely HOWLING at Gannett/Golfweek's response to Patrick Reed's defamation suit lobbed at them

So glad we've reached this moment pic.twitter.com/eoWqOYN6SY

— Sean Zak (@Sean_Zak) January 15, 2023