By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A federal judge on Friday threw out U.S. President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times over its content, calling it a “decidedly improper and impermissible” effort to attack his adversaries.
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday said Trump violated a federal civil procedure rule by failing to offer a short and plain statement of why he should prevail over the Times, four of its reporters and the publisher Penguin Random House.
He faulted the president for instead packing his 85-page complaint with unnecessary statements lauding his successes and “singular brilliance,” attacking critics, and even defending his father.
“A complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective — not a protected platform to rage against an adversary,” wrote Merryday, an appointee of Republican former President George H.W. Bush.
The Tampa, Florida-based judge gave Trump 28 days to file an amended complaint “in a professional and dignified manner” of no more than 40 pages.
TRUMP PLANS TO FOLLOW JUDGE’S DIRECTIONS
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said in a statement: “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.”
In a separate statement, 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.”
Penguin Random House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Friday’s order is an unusual rebuke by a federal judge to a sitting president over decorum in the judicial process.
Trump sued over three articles and a book by two of the Times reporters. He accused the defendants of defaming him prior to the 2024 presidential election in order to sabotage his campaign and disparage his reputation as a successful businessman.
JUDGE SAYS A LAWSUIT IS NOT A PR MEGAPHONE
In a four-page order, Merryday said plaintiffs like Trump are supposed to “fairly, precisely, directly, soberly, and economically” tell defendants in complaints why they are being sued.
Trump’s complaint said the defendants “baselessly hate President Trump in a deranged way,” and that their actions “represent a new journalistic low for the hopelessly compromised and tarnished ‘Gray Lady,'” a nickname for the Times.
It also contended that the Times itself was “deranged” for endorsing Democrat Kamala Harris for president.
“A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations,” the judge wrote. “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.”
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, Editing by Franklin Paul and Rosalba O’Brien)
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