CNN has dismissed a request from President Donald Trump's campaign urging the network retract and apologise for a recent poll showing Trump lagging behind Joe Biden.
A cease and desist letter delivered to CNN president Jeff Zucker claimed the poll was incorrect and misleading. It showed Trump behind Biden, his opponent for the next Presidency race, by 14 points - 55 percent to 41 percent.
It also revealed Trump's approval rating is sitting at 38 percent - his lowest since January.
"It's a stunt and a phony poll to cause voter suppression, stifle momentum and enthusiasm for the President, and present a false view generally of the actual support across America for the President," read the letter, signed by the Trump campaign's senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis and chief operating officer Michael Glassner.
The request has been firmly denied with CNN saying it was the first time in its 40 year history that the network had been threatened with legal action "because an American politician or campaign did not like CNN's polling results".
"We have received legal threats from political leaders in the past," read a response letter from CNN's general counsel David Vigilante.
"They have typically come from countries like Venezuela or other regimes where there is little or no respect for a free and independent media."
"Your letter is factually and legally baseless...your allegations and demands are rejected in their entirety," he concluded.
After CNN released it's poll earlier in the week Trump tweeted he had hired pollster McLaughlin and Associates to analyse the survey and others which he blasted as "FAKE" based on "the incredible enthusiasm [his campaign] is receiving".
