President Donald Trump on Monday filed a federal defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, four of its reporters and Penguin Random House over coverage of his 2024 campaign.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, which covers the area where Trump resides outside the White House, accused the newspaper of attempting to ruin his reputation as a businessman, sink his campaign and prejudice judges and juries against him in coverage of his campaign.
The reporters and defendants are Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner, Peter Baker, and Michael S. Schmidt. Penguin Random House published a book by Craig and Buettner titled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.”
Schmidt, Craig and Baker have all spent time as analysts for MSNBC or NBC News.
The newspaper, the suit alleges, “continued spreading false and defamatory content about President Trump” and refused to recognize he “secured the greatest personal and political achievement in American history” with his 2024 win.
The suit singles out a New York Times editorial endorsing Democratic opponent Kamala Harris.
“The [editorial] Board asserted hypocritically and without evidence that President Trump would ‘defy the norms and dismantle the institutions that have made our country strong,’” the suit states.
It also points to three long-form articles in 2024 by the paper’s reporters named in the filing challenging narratives on Trump’s success as a businessman, looking at past scandals and analyzing his character as one that could move the Oval Office toward dictatorship.
“Today, the Times is a full-throated mouthpiece for the Democrat Party,” the filing alleges. “The newspaper’s editorial routine is now one of industrial-scale defamation and libel against political opponents. As such, the Times has become a leading, and unapologetic purveyor of falsehoods against President Trump.”
Neither the New York Times, Penguin Random House, nor the reporters named in the suit immediately responded to requests for comment early Tuesday. NBC News contacted MSNBC for comment.
The suit includes letters sent by Trump’s lawyers to the New York Times and Penguin Random House in October, along with responses from the two media organizations’ lawyers. The letter to the Times demanded it cease and desist from making “false and defamatory statements” about the president, while listing a litany of complaints about Times coverage.
Newsroom lawyer David McCraw responded by defending the reporting in articles mentioned by Trump’s lawyers.
“Little needs to be said about the rest of your letter, which is principally a litany of personal complaints about The New York Times and its reporters, punctuated with falsehoods and premised on the deeply troubling notion that anyone who dares to report unfavorable facts about a presidential candidate is engaged in “sabotage” (as opposed to, say, contributing to the free exchange of information and ideas that makes our democracy possible),” McCraw wrote, according to the letter attached to Monday’s suit.
Carolyn K. Foley, Penguin Random House senior vice president and associate general counsel, responded to Trump lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik: “The fact that the authors of the book do not share your favorable view of your client’s career, does not provide the foundation for a defamation claim.”
Monday’s filing seeks no less than $15 billion in compensatory damages for the alleged defamation, as well as unspecified punitive damages.
ABC and Paramount, the parent company of CBS, have settled lawsuits brought by Trump and the president launched a new one against the Wall Street Journal and its ownership in July.
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