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‘Decidedly improper’: Trump's 85-page suit against NYT tossed by court for failing to have short, direct claims
The judge found that Donald Trump’s lawyers failed to follow court rules requiring “short, plain, direct” claims.
A US judge in Florida on Friday tossed out President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, for now, just days after it was filed.
The judge found that Trump’s lawyers failed to follow court rules requiring “short, plain, direct” claims.
According to the order by US District Judge Steven Merryday, Trump’s lawsuit “unmistakably and inexcusably” violated the court’s rules by featuring “repetitive,” “superfluous” and “florid” allegations and details, but said that his lawyers could refile an edited version within the next month.
The 85-page complaint featured language and information that Merryday said went far beyond the limits of what the court’s rules allow. The judge wrote that even under a “generous and lenient” interpretation, the lawsuit was “decidedly improper and impermissible.”
The judge criticised what he called “laudatory” statements included in the lawsuit about Trump, such as his “historic” election win and the “cultural magnitude” of his “singular brilliance.” The judge also called out Trump’s recitations of his business and media track records and negative language used to describe the Times’ coverage, such as “new journalistic low.”
According to the order, the initial complaint wasn’t an appropriate 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,” he wrote.
Judge Merryday gave Trump’s team another 28 days to present a new version of the lawsuit, this time limiting it to 40 pages.
Trump filed a lawsuit in federal court in Tampa earlier this week against The New York Times Co. and Penguin Random House LLC, accusing the paper of serving as a “mouthpiece” for the Democrats, pitting himself against one of the world’s oldest and most prominent news organisations.
A spokesperson for the New York Times wrote in a statement that “we welcome the judge’s quick ruling, which recognised that the complaint was a political document rather than a serious legal filing.”
Donald Trump's alleged defamation lawsuit against The New York Times
Donald Trump’s lawsuit, which was filed Monday, claims that the Republican leader’s reputation was harmed by the 2024 book Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. The suit also alleged the same for three Times articles that were published in the run-up to the 2024 election.
Trump claims the book and articles are part of a “decades-long pattern by the New York Times of intentional and malicious defamation” against him. The suit raises numerous disputes with the Times, including its “deranged” front-page endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, that are not included in his legal claims.
The case was one of Trump’s running battles with the press. In July, he sued Dow Jones & Co., News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch for libel, seeking $10 billion in damages after the Wall Street Journal published a story alleging that Trump once sent a suggestive birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. House Democrats later released the alleged birthday note as part of a trove of documents received by the House Oversight Committee.
Trump reached a settlement with Paramount Global in July over a lawsuit tied to CBS News Network’s 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Harris. In December, ABC agreed to give $15 million to Trump’s future presidential foundation or museum to resolve a separate defamation claim.
