Judge throws out Trump’s $15B lawsuit against the New York Times, allows refiling

A federal judge on Sept. 19 threw out President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, saying the 85-page complaint was too long but leaving the door open for a shorter refiling.

US District Judge Steven D. Merryday, whom George H.W. Bush appointed, ruled the filing violated federal rules requiring complaints to be “simple, concise, and direct.” He gave Trump’s attorneys 28 days to submit a revised version of no more than 40 pages.

“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,” Merryday wrote, later adding, “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.”

As CatholicVote reported, Trump sued the Times and four of its reporters on Sept. 15, alleging the paper engaged in a “decades-long pattern” of “international and malicious defamation against” him.

In the complaint, his legal team claimed several Times articles, the paper’s 2024 endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris, and a book written by Times reporters were examples of defamation. 

In a Sept. 16 statement, the Times dismissed the lawsuit as meritless, arguing the complaint “lacks any legitimate legal claims.” 

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team told FOX News that the lawsuit will move forward: “President Trump will continue to hold the Fake News accountable through this powerhouse lawsuit against the New York Times, its reporters, and Penguin Random House, in accordance with the judge’s direction on logistics.”