Senior Trump political adviser Chris LaCivita and The Daily Beast have reached a settlement agreement stemming from a defamation suit LaCivita brought against the news outlet last year.
Why it matters: LaCivita's lawsuit was one of several that figures in Trump's orbit brought against news organizations in the wake of the 2024 election.
The background: The lawsuit centered on a Oct. 2024 story the Daily Beast published, which reported that LaCivita had made $22 million off the campaign.
- LaCivita adamantly denied the allegations, and his legal team sent several letters to the Daily Beast demanding it retract the story.
- The outlet later edited the story to say that LaCivita had made $19.2 million. It also deleted a podcast which featured longtime investigative journalist Michael Isikoff, the story's author, talking about the piece.
- But the Daily Beast declined LaCivita's demands to retract the article or make additional edits.
- In March 2025, LaCivita's lawyers filed a defamation suit in Virginia federal court accusing the Daily Beast of "harming [LaCivita's] reputation as an honest, reasonable, and ethical political operative."
Zoom out: LaCivita and the Daily Beast settled the case on Friday.
- Under the agreement, LaCivita dropped the case in exchange for the outlet adding an "editor's note" at the bottom of the article and other follow-up pieces it wrote.
- The note reads: "The Daily Beast corrected and clarified its reporting concerning compensation associated with Mr. LaCivita's work on President Trump's campaign and removed a related podcast episode that could not be edited. The parties have now mutually resolved their dispute."
- LaCivita did not receive any money in the settlement.
What they're saying: A person close to The Daily Beast called the outcome a victory for the outlet, noting that it was not required to change any of the reporting within the story itself.
- "We win, and keep, our readers' trust by doing what we did here: reporting rigorously, transparently updating stories in the light of new reporting, and standing by our journalism when the people we have made uncomfortable threaten us, and try to bully and intimidate us," Daily Beast Executive Editor Hugh Dougherty wrote in a Saturday email to staffers.
The other side: LaCivita attorney Mark Geragos -- who has previously represented celebrity clients like Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson and Lyle and Erik Menendez -- called the appended notes "the equivalent of a journalistic white flag of surrender" and "a complete and total capitulation by The Daily Beast."
