This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The Washington Post is accused of scheming with a former employee of President Donald Trump's Truth Social media organization to falsely accuse the company of securities fraud and other wrongdoing.

The claim comes in a defamation lawsuit filed by TMTG, which is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida, against the publication.

The actions of the Post's "false criminal charges exposed TMTG to public ridicule, contempt and distrust, and injured TMTG's business and reputation," according to the filing, in the Circuit Court of the 12th Judicial Circuit in Sarasota.

Just the News explained, "The lawsuit by Trump Media and Technology Group, which owns the Truth Social platform, was filed Saturday night in Florida state court in Sarasota County and accuses one of America's most storied newspapers of publishing a story of libel and slander that the suit claims poses an 'existential threat' to the social media company."

A Post official declined to comment. But the report explained, "The legal action by the Trump firm comes just a few weeks after the Post won two Pulitzer Prize awards for its reporting last year and Fox News settled a $1.2 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million."

The complaint explains the "former employee," who was "terminated for cause," worked with the Post on the publication's "years-long crusade against TMTG characterized by the concealment of relevant information in its possession – a bitterly ironic truth for a publication whose motto is 'Democracy dies in darkness.'"

The "latest defamation" had created an existential threat for TMTG, "causing enormous loss," the filing charges.

The case is intended to "recover special damages to its business and goodwill, actual injury to its name and reputation, and punitive damages for WaPo's gross misconduct."

The complaints note that the Guardian, in March, published an article that "contained false statements and defamatory implications, including the federal investigators, had examined TMTG 'for possible money laundering,'" and more.

The "source" of those claims was former employee Will Wilkerson, "who was fired for cause," the complaint states.

Wilkerson then, according to the complaint, "came up with yet another fake news story," and because he knew that the Post "eagerly published false stories about TMTG, its CEO, Devin Nunes and, of course, former President Donald Trump," he "contacted WaPo with a salacious story about a porn-friendly bank and securities fraud."

"Through a series of meetings and conversations with Wilkerson and his lawyers, WaPo undertook with Wilkerson to publish agreed false and defamatory statements to injury TMTG."

The report contained a long list of "false statements," including that "A Russian banker connected to the porn industry could have gained a stake in Trump's Truth Social according to documents," the complaint.

"WaPo was not content with the publication of the false statements to its 2,500,000 subscribers and republication to its 20,000,000 Twitter followers. The primary author of the WaPo article, Drew Harwell, republished the article to his 48,000 Twitter followers, which included correspondents at CNN, New York Times, NBC News, The Atlantic, Huffington Post, the Daily Beast, Business Insider, and the Guardian," the complaint charged.

The "smear" included statements about a "porn-friendly bank" and "an $8 million mystery loan," the filing said.

Then the claims moved into social media where "WaPo's frenzy and repeated concerted harassment evidence a knowing, deliberate, organized and systemic effort to promote the false and defamatory statements worldwide in order to inflict the greatest possible injury on TMTG."

In charging the statements were false, the case explains TMTG "did not conceal from or improperly fail to disclose " details from shareholders or the SEC.

"To this day, WaPo refuses to retract the false and defamatory statements," the lawsuit charges.