Donald Trump sends legal notice to NYT over 'groping women' story; lawyer says article defamatory

Washington: Donald Trump has sent a legal notice to The New York Times asking it to retract a "reckless" and "defamatory" story in which two women claimed the Republican presidential nominee touched them inappropriately.

"Your article is reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se. It is apparent from, among other things, the timing of the article, that it is nothing more than a politically-motivated effort to defeat Mr Trump's candidacy," said Marc E Kasowitz, the attorney on behalf of the Republican presidential nominee.

"That is why you apparently performed an entirely inadequate investigation to test the veracity of these false and malicious allegations, including why these two individuals waited, in one case, 11 years, and, in another case, more than three decades, before deciding to come forward with these false and defamatory statements," he said.

"Clearly, The New York Times is willing to provide a platform to anyone wishing to smear Mr Trump's name and reputation prior to the election irrespective of whether the alleged statements have any basis in fact," he said.

"We hereby demand that you immediately cease any further publication of this article, remove it from your website and issue a full and immediate retraction and apology. Failure to do so will leave my client with no option but to pursue all available actions and remedies," Kasowitz said in the legal notice sent to the daily.

Earlier, 70-year-old Trump alleged the mainstream media is extension of the rival Hillary Clinton Campaign and the system is rigged including that of the non-profit that holds the presidential debate.

"WikiLeaks shows something I've been warning about for a very, very long time. The media is simply an extension of the Clinton Campaign," Trump told his supporters at an election rally in Florida.

Trump alleged that while the media has been writing stories against him, they have been ignoring the critical stories related to Democratic presidential nominee Clinton.

"These dishonest people, mainstream media, they don't talk about this. They don't talk about this. Now, if Donald Trump sneezes today, it's a major story," he said.

"We are in a rigged system. This is a rigged, rigged system. You saw so many of the things. I'll tell you, this WikiLeaks stuff is unbelievable. They want to put it out, but they can't do that, because without the media and without the press, Hillary Clinton would be nothing. She'd be nothing. Zero," he said.

"The corporate media can't report on the establishment because the corporate media is the establishment, such a big part of it," he said.

"Reporters who work for these outlets like the Washington Post or the New York Times may think of themselves as journalists, but they're actually cogs for a corrupt political machine. That's the Clinton machine. The e-mail show the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Univision who I sued Univision, and I was very happy with what they did," Trump said.