TL;DR: Shorten your suit.
A Florida federal judge tossed President Trump‘s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times for excessive length Friday, writing in a blistering decision that a civil complaint shouldn’t be “a megaphone for public relations.”
Tampa US District Judge Steven D. Merryday gave Trump 28 days to file a new, shorter version of the complaint that “must not exceed” 40 pages in length.
A Trump spokesman said in a statement that the commander in chief wasn’t backing down from the case but would respect the judge’s order on “logistics.”
“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,” the statement said.
The president’s lawsuit, filed Monday, names the Times; reporters Peter Baker, Russ Buettner, Susanne Craig, and Michael S. Schmidt; and Penguin Random House as defendants over three articles and a book co-authored by Buettner and Craig and published in September 2024.
“Alleging only two simple counts of defamation, the complaint consumes eighty-five pages,” wrote Merryday, appointed to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush.
“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 later added: “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.”
A Times spokesperson said: “We welcome the judge’s quick ruling, which recognized that the complaint was a political document rather than a serious legal filing.”
In his suit, Trump took issue with the tome “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created The Illusion of Success,” arguing the book and subsequent articles were meant to “sabotage” his presidential run and prejudice judges and juries against him in a slew of criminal and civil cases.
Trump claimed in his suit that he was elected to a second term in office despite the alleged “persistent election interference from the legacy media, led most notoriously by the New York Times.”
The president announced the lawsuit Monday after the newspaper published articles about Trump’s alleged ties to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The president had threatened to sue last week after the outlet covered a sexually suggestive note and drawing that was given to him by the notorious financier.
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