A federal judge in Florida dismissed President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times and Penguin Random House, calling the filing “decidedly improper and impermissible.”
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday struck the complaint on Friday and gave Trump’s attorneys 28 days to refile.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Trump filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. The lawsuit accused the newspaper of publishing false and damaging stories meant to harm his reputation.
The suit, filed in a Florida state court, named New York Times reporters Peter Baker, Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, and Michael Schmidt, as well as Penguin Random House, for a book published in 2024 titled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.”
“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, according to ABC News.
Merryday said the complaint “unmistakably and inexcusably” violated civil procedure rules. He noted that a valid complaint must provide a “short, plain, direct statement of allegations of fact” that permits an informed response.
“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,” he continued.
“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.