A federal judge in Florida has thrown out President Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, citing its excessive length, but giving his attorneys a chance to file a shorter, amended version of the complaint within a month.
In the ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Steven Merryday said the original 85-page complaint was “decidedly improper and impermissible” and went well beyond Rule 8 of federal rules of civil procedure, which requires that each allegation be “simple, concise and direct.”
Merryday, a George H.W. Bush nominee, criticized the complaint’s “abundant, florid, and enervating detail,” including superfluous references to “The Apprentice,” Mr. Trump’s many properties and media appearances, and an account of what the president calls “the Russia Collusion Hoax.” For a two-count complaint, Merryday said the first 79 pages of the 85-page filing are unnecessarily long.
The president sued The New York Times and four of its reporters earlier this week over their extensive coverage of his business career, campaign and administration, asking for $15 billion.
The president and his attorneys have 28 days to amend the complaint, with the judge giving Mr. Trump’s attorneys a 40-page limit.
“Even under the most generous and lenient applications of Rule 8, the complaint is decidedly improper and impermissible,” Merryday wrote. “… The reader must endure an allegation of ‘the desperate need to defame with a partisan spear rather than report with an authentic looking glass’ and an allegation that ‘the false narrative about The Apprentice was just the tip of defendants’ melting iceberg of falsehoods.'”
In a statement Friday, a spokesperson for Mr. Trump’s legal team vowed to “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.”
The New York Times in a statement earlier this week said it “will not be deterred by intimidation tactics.”
The lawsuit “lacks any legitimate legal claims and instead is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting,” the Times said, adding, “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.”
The president has sued multiple media organizations in the past year, including CBS News, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News and the Des Moines Register.
contributed to this report.
