U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday tossed out President Trump’s $15 billion lawsuit against the New York Times, criticizing the filing’s length.
“Alleging only two simple counts of defamation, the complaint consumes eighty-five pages. Count I appears on page eighty, and Count II appears on page eighty-three. Pages one through seventy-nine, plus part of page eighty, present allegations common to both counts and to all defendants,” the judge wrote.
Merryday asserted that a complaint must be 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.” Instead of following these guidelines, Trump’s filing “stands unmistakably and inexcusably athwart the requirements of Rule 8. This action will begin, will continue, and will end in accord with the rules of procedure and in a professional and dignified manner.”
“The complaint is STRUCK with leave to amend within twenty-eight days,” the judge explained. “The amended complaint must not exceed forty pages, excluding only the caption, the signature, and any attachment.”
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the President 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.”
President Trump filed the defamation lawsuit against the publication for its decades-long “pattern of abuse.”
“I am PROUD to hold this once respected ‘rag’ responsible, as we are doing with the Fake News Networks such as our successful litigation against George Slopadopoulos/ABC/Disney, and 60 Minutes/CBS/Paramount, who knew that they were falsely ‘smearing’ me through a highly sophisticated system of document and visual alteration, which was, in effect, a malicious form of defamation, and thus, settled for record amounts,” Trump wrote on Truth Social this week, adding the New York Times has been “allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!”
