A federal judge has tossed President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times and Penguin Random House, calling the complaint “decidedly improper and impermissible.”
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday on Friday struck the complaint and gave the president’s lawyers 28 days to refile their lawsuit.
“A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally or the functional equivalent of the Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner,” Merryday wrote.
In the lawsuit, which was just filed on Tuesday, Trump’s attorneys alleged that the Times has become a “leading, and unapologetic, purveyor of falsehoods,” arguing that a series of articles about Trump — including a report that Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly warned the president would rule like a dictator, an article about the making of “The Apprentice,” and a report about the controversy that has followed Trump — amounted to libel.
Judge Merryday, in a blistering four-page ruling, said he was throwing out the suit because it “unmistakably and inexcusably” violates the rules that govern civil lawsuits.
“A complaint is a short, plain, direct statement of allegations of fact sufficient to create a facially plausible claim for relief and sufficient to permit the formulation of an informed response,” he wrote. “Although lawyers receive a modicum of expressive latitude in pleading the claim of a client, the complaint in this action extends far beyond the outer bound of that latitude.”
In tossing the suit because Trump’s complaint was procedurally improper, the judge did not weigh in on the merits of Trump’s defamation claim, giving his lawyers 28 days to refile it in a “professional and dignified manner.”
Merryday, who was appointed by President Geroge H. W. Bush, said the complaint contains eighty pages of repetitive claims and praise for President Trump, but fails to establish the two counts of defamation alleged. He lambasted Trump’s lawyers for forcing him to “labor through” the “superfluous” praise about Trump’s show “The Apprentice,” as well as the size of his real estate empire and the “historic fashion” of Trump’s 2024 presidential victory.
“Even assuming that each allegation in the complaint is true … a complaint remains an improper and impermissible place for the tedious and burdensome aggregation of prospective evidence, for the rehearsal of tendentious arguments, or for the protracted recitation and explanation of legal authority putatively supporting the pleader’s claim for relief,” the judge wrote. “As every lawyer knows (or is presumed to know), a complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective — not a protected platform to rage against an adversary.”
Filed in the Middle District of Florida, the lawsuit named The New York Times and Times reporters Peter Baker, Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, and Michael Schmidt as defendants. The lawsuit also named as a defendant Penguin Random House, the publisher of Craig and Buettner’s book “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.”
“Today, the Times is a fullthroated mouthpiece of the Democrat Party. The newspaper’s editorial routine is now one of industrial-scale defamation and libel against political opponents,” the lawsuit claimed.
Trump’s lawyers allege that The New York Times and Penguin Random House sought to not only damage the president’s “hard-earned and world-renowned reputation for business success,” but also hurt his chances of winning the 2024 election.
A New York Times spokesperson said Tuesday that the suit had no merit.
“It lacks any legitimate legal claims and instead is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting,” the Times spokesperson said. “The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics. We will continue to pursue the facts without fear or favor and stand up for journalists’ First Amendment right to ask questions on behalf of the American people.”
“This is a meritless lawsuit,” said a Penguin Random House spokesperson. “Penguin Random House stands by the book and its authors and will continue to uphold the values of the First Amendment that are fundamental to our role as a book publisher.”
In July, Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal after the Journal reported that Trump allegedly sent disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein a bawdy letter in 2003 that was included in a book made for Epstein’s 50th birthday, which Trump has denied.
In response to that suit, a spokesperson for Journal owner Dow Jones said, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
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