MIAMI: A federal judge has dismissed US President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times in a sharply worded ruling.
District Judge Steven Merryday described Trump’s initial complaint as improper and impermissible while granting his legal team 28 days to submit a refiled version in a professional and dignified manner.
The George HW Bush appointee did not address the case’s substantive claims but strongly criticised the document’s florid writing, repetitive praise of Trump, and excessive 85-page length.
Merryday emphasised that a complaint should constitute a short and plain statement of factual allegations sufficient to establish a plausible claim for relief.
He stated that lawyers receive limited expressive latitude in pleading client claims but noted this complaint extended far beyond acceptable boundaries.
The judge declared that a complaint serves neither as a public forum for vituperation and invective nor as a protected platform to rage against adversaries.
A New York Times spokesperson welcomed the judge’s quick ruling that recognized the complaint as a political document rather than a serious legal filing.
Trump filed this lawsuit on Monday as part of his expanding legal campaign against news organizations he accuses of bias against him.
The 79-year-old president has intensified his longstanding media hostility since returning to the White House by criticising journalists, restricting access, and filing massive compensation lawsuits.
His Florida federal court filing accused the Times of a decades-long pattern of smears driven by actual malice against him.
Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform that the newspaper had been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame him for too long.
The lawsuit additionally named four Times reporters and publisher Penguin Random House as defendants.
It alleged the Times deviated from industry best practices by writing articles in the most antagonistic way and not allowing sufficient response time before publication.
The complaint bluntly stated that defendants baselessly hated President Trump in a deranged manner while seeking compensatory damages of at least $15 billion plus punitive damages.
Although US media enjoys broad constitutional protections, Trump has previously secured multi-million dollar settlements from ABC and Paramount-owned CBS in similar cases.
Those settlements payable to Trump’s future presidential library appeared motivated by parent companies wanting to maintain good relations with the president.
Trump has also sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal for at least $10 billion over their July report about his alleged birthday letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Disney-owned ABC indefinitely suspended talk show host Jimmy Kimmel this week after FCC licensing threats over his comments about conservative influencer Charlie Kirk’s killing. – AFP
