The New York Times' general counsel has just informed Donald Trump's lawyer, in scathing terms, that it will not retract its story about two women who claim that Trump touched them inappropriately. 
 
 In a letter to Trump attorney Marc E. Kasowitz sent Thursday, New York Times general counsel David McCraw wrote, of the request that the Times retract the story, "We decline to do so." 
 
 McCraw then laid into Kasowitz and his client, writing, "The essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one's reputation. Mr. Trump has bragged about his non-consensual sexual touching of women. He has bragged about intruding on beauty pageant contestants in their dressing rooms. He acquiesced to a radio host's request to discuss Mr. Trump's own daughter as a 'piece of ass.' Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward to report on Mr. Trump's unwanted advances." 
 
 He continued: "Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself." 
 
 Times sources told CNNMoney there were spontaneous bursts of applause for McCraw when he walked through the paper's newsroom on Thursday afternoon. 
 
 Related: Read full letter by the New York Times 
 
 Trump said at a Thursday afternoon rally in Florida that "we are preparing" a suit against The Times. 
 
 Nothing has been filed yet. "Lawyers are doing the due diligence needed to file such a massive suit," a Trump campaign official said on condition of anonymity. 
 
 Legal experts have doubts that Trump will actually file such a suit. 
 
 The Times story featured two women, Jessica Leeds and Rachel Crooks, who said that Trump made inappropriate physical advances on them. CNN has not been able to independently confirm their accounts. 
 
 When Times reporter Megan Twohey interviewed Trump by phone Tuesday night, "he threatened to sue us if we published these allegations," Twohey told CNNMoney. She quoted Trump as saying that "none of this ever took place." She said Trump shouted at her and called her "a disgusting human being." 
 
 Twohey also received a legal letter from a Trump attorney Wednesday afternoon. The Times published the story online shortly before 7 p.m. Eastern. 
 
 "I think it is pretty evident this story falls clearly in the realm of public service journalism, and discussing issues that arose from the tape and his comments since it surfaced," Times executive editor Dean Baquet told CNNMoney. 
 
 The legal threats continued Wednesday night. "NYT editors, reporters, politically motivated accusers better lawyer up," a Trump campaign official said. 
 
 Shortly after midnight Thursday, a lawyer representing Trump, Marc E. Kasowitz, sent a letter to Baquet saying "your article is reckless, defamatory and constitutes libel per se." 
 
 "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 purse all available actions and remedies," Kasowitz wrote. 
 
 The letter lacks any substantive facts to cast doubt on the Times story, and is not a lawsuit. 
 
 In his response to Kasowitz, McCraw -- who canceled his "annual update on newsroom law" session that he was going to hold for staffers on Thursday -- also wrote, "The women quoted in our story spoke out on an issue of national importance -- indeed, an issue that Mr. Trump himself discussed with the whole nation watching during Sunday night's presidential debate.... It would have been a disservice not just to our readers but to democracy itself to silence their voices.... If Mr. Trump disagrees, if he believes that American citizens had no right to hear what these women had to say and that the law of this country forces us and those who would dare to criticize him to stand silent or be punished, we welcome the opportunity to have a court set him straight." 
 
 What might happen next? 
 
 Along with the potential suit against the Times, high-ranking sources within the Trump campaign also said they were "drafting" a lawsuit against The Palm Beach Post, which published a separate story. 
 
 A lawyer for Trump similarly threatened to sue The Times when it published several pages of his 1995 tax return earlier this month, but did not follow through. 
 
 If the Trump campaign does proceed with lawsuits in this case, it would be a break from past practice, and it will give both the Times and the Post the opportunity to pursue discovery and request information on Trump's entire sexual history, because Trump would have the burden of proving falsity and actual malice. 
 
 In the Times story, Leeds alleges that Trump, whom she says she had never met before, grabbed her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt while the two were on an airplane more than three decades ago. Crooks, who worked in Trump Tower at a company that Trump did not own, says Trump kissed her outside an elevator after she introduced herself. The Post features a woman named Mindy McGillivray who says she was groped by Trump at Mar-a-Lago when she was 23. 
 
 Twohey said Crooks, who was was initially reluctant to speak publicly, reached out to the newspaper after it published a story in May titled "Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private." 
 
 Leeds, the other woman in the Times article, contacted the newspaper after Sunday's debate, when Trump was asked by CNN's Anderson Cooper if he had ever done the things he described in that video. 
 
 "No, I have not," Trump said. 
 
 Michael Barbaro, who co-bylined the story with Twohey, tweeted Wednesday night, "This story might not have happened unless @andersoncooper had asked the pointed questions he did at debate." 
 
 The Times report comes in the wake of the release of a 2005 recording in which Trump boasted about being able to kiss women and grope them in ways that would amount to sexual assault. 
 
 In a statement on the Times' report earlier on Wednesday night, Trump spokesman Jason Miller said the "entire article is fiction." 
 
 "For the New York Times to launch a completely false, coordinated character assassination against Mr. Trump on a topic like this is dangerous," Miller said in the statement. "To reach back decades in an attempt to smear Mr. Trump trivializes sexual assault, and it sets a new low for where the media is willing to go in its efforts to determine this election." 
 
 Late Wednesday night, People Magazine also published a report by one of its writers, Natasha Stoynoff, in which she alleged that she had been physically attacked by Trump at Mar-a-Lago while writing a profile on Trump's one-year wedding anniversary to his wife Melania. CNN has not been able to independently confirm her account. 
 
 The Trump campaign did not respond to request for comment regarding that story, but a Trump spokesperson told People, "This never happened. There is no merit or veracity to this fabricated story." 
 
 On Thursday morning, Trump also took to Twitter to say, "Why didn't the writer of the twelve year old article in People Magazine mention the 'incident' in her story. Because it did not happen!" 
 
 A lawyer for Melania Trump sent a letter to People, demanding only that certain lines be removed from the story. Those sentences depicted a friendly encounter between Mrs. Trump, her son Baron and Stoynoff some time after the alleged incident with Trump. 
 
 Melania Trump's lawyers insist that the encounter never happened and want that section of the story retracted and an apology issued. 
 
 People Magazine editor-in-chief Jess Cagle responded in a statement, writing, "We are grateful to Natasha Stoynoff for telling her story. Ms. Stoynoff is a remarkable, ethical, honest and patriotic woman, and she has shared her story of being physically attacked by Donald Trump in 2005 because she felt it was her duty to make the public aware. To assign any other motive is a disgusting, pathetic attempt to victimize her again. We stand steadfastly by her, and are proud to publish her clear, credible account of what happened." ||||| On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015 
 
 Melania Trump demands retraction from People: she and her husband's accuser were 'never friends or even friendly' 
 
 Donald Trump may not be planning to sue People over the magazine's story accusing him of sexual assault, but his wife Melania apparently is. 
 
 At 7:15 p.m. on Thursday night, Melania tweeted a copy of a letter bearing the return address of her lawyer, Charles Harder, and addressed to People editorial director Jess Cagle and People writer Natasha Stoynoff, who wrote a first-person account about Donald Trump forcibly kissing her at Mar-a-Lago in 2005. 
 
 Harder — who represented Hulk Hogan in his suit against Gawker, which was funded by Trump supporter Peter Thiel, and has sent threatening letters on Melania's behalf before — wrote that Stoynoff's account contained "actionable" falsehoods (though it did not call the article defamatory). The specific passage Melania Trump disputes: the account of the writer bumping into Melania and having a brief conversation with her outside of Trump Tower. 
 
 "The true facts are these: Mrs. Trump did not encounter Ms. Stoynoff on the street, or have any conversation with her. The two are not friends and were never friends or even friendly," Harder wrote. 
 
 Harder wrote that if the article is not corrected within 24 hours, Melania would "consider her legal options." 
 
 Earlier on Thursday, Cagle said in a statement that People magazine stands behind Stoynoff's reporting. 
 
 Read the full letter from Harder below: 
 
 Re: Melania Trump – Demand for Retraction and Apology 
 
 Dear Mr. Cagle and Ms Stoynoff: 
 
 This law firm is litigation counsel for Melania Trump. We write in connection with certain of the false statements int he story authored by Natasha Stoynoff and published by People Online on or about October 12, 2016 bearing the headline, “Physically Attacked by Donald Trump – a PEOPLE Writer’s Own Harrowing Story” (the “Story”). The Story is located at the URL address: http://people.com/politics/donald-trump-attacked-people-writer/ 
 
 The following statements in the Story, among others, are false and completely fictionalized. We therefore demand that you immediately and permanently remove each of these statements from the Story, and print a prominent retraction and apology: 
 
 1. “That winter, I actually bumped into Melania on Fifth Avenue, in front of Trump Tower as she walked into the building, carrying baby Barron.” 
 
 2. “‘Natasha, why don’t we see you anymore?’ she asked, giving me a hug.” 
 
 3. “I was quiet and smiled, telling her I’d missed her, and I squeezed little Barron’s foot.” 
 
 The true facts are these: Mrs. Trump did not encounter Ms. Stoynoff on the street, nor have any conversation with her. The two are not friends and were never friends or even friendly. 
 
 At the time in question, Mrs. Trump would not even have recognized Ms. Stoynoff if they had encountered one another on the street. 
 
 Your publication of the false statements is actionable and gives rise to claims of damages. Please confirm in writing within twenty-four (24) hours of the transmission of this letter that the foregoing demands will be, and are being, fully complied with. Failure to do so will require Mrs. Trump to consider her legal options. 
 
 This letter is not intended as a full or complete statement of all relevant facts or applicable law, and nothing herein is intended as, nor should it be deemed to constitute, a waiver or relinquishment of any of my client’s rights, remedies, claims or causes of action, all of which are hereby expressly reserved. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 CHARLES J. HARDER OF 
 
 HARDER MIRELL & ABRAMS LLP
– Donald Trump's lawyers have threatened to sue the New York Times over a story alleging that he groped two women—but the lawyers for the Times don't appear to be quaking in their boots. "The essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one's reputation," writes NYT general counsel David McCraw in a letter to Trump's attorneys, noting that Trump has, among other things, "bragged about his non-consensual touching of women." "Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself," McCraw writes, telling Trump's lawyers that he is rejecting their demands to retract the story. Sources tell CNNMoney that McCraw—who told Trump's lawyers that the NYT would welcome the opportunity to have a court set Trump straight if he thinks he can silence his accusers—was cheered as he walked through the newsroom on Thursday. Lawyers for Melania Trump, meanwhile, have threatened legal action against People over a minor detail in writer Natasha Stoynoff's account of Trump forcing himself on her, reports Politico. Melania Trump's lawyers are demanding a retraction of Stoynoff's "false" statements about bumping into her in front of Trump Tower months after the alleged incident. (Trump says his accusers are "horrible, horrible liars.")