President Trump has refiled his $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times — one month after a federal judge threw out his original 85-page complaint for being too long and “improper.”
The amended 40-page filing, submitted Thursday in Florida’s Middle District court, renews Trump’s claims that the paper and its reporters defamed him in coverage of his business career and his reality TV years.
The suit also targets Penguin Random House, which published the book “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success” by Times journalists Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner.
Trump’s refiling follows a Sept. 19 order from US District Judge Steven Merryday, who dismissed the initial version as “decidedly improper and impermissible.”
President Trump has refiled his $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times. REUTERS
Merryday ruled that the 85-page document violated Rule 8 of federal civil procedure, which requires a “short and plain statement” of the claim.
“Alleging only two simple counts of defamation, the complaint consumes 85 pages,” Merryday wrote.
“Even under the most generous and lenient application of rule 8, the complaint is decidedly improper and impermissible.”
He criticized the original filing for “many, often repetitive, and laudatory (toward President Trump) but superfluous allegations,” adding that “a complaint remains an improper and impermissible place for the tedious and burdensome aggregation of prospective evidence.”
The new complaint trims the excess but keeps the scope. Trump again seeks $15 billion in compensatory damages plus punitive damages, according to the filing.
The case stems from a series of Times reports published in 2024, along with the “Lucky Loser” book, which examined Trump’s finances and his family’s real estate empire.
The amended 40-page filing, submitted Thursday in Florida’s Middle District court, renews Trump’s claims that the paper and its reporters defamed him in coverage of his business career and his reality TV years. AFP via Getty Images
The reporting detailed alleged tax avoidance schemes by Trump’s father, Fred C. Trump, and described the president’s rise through the television show “The Apprentice.”
Trump’s lawyers argue those accounts falsely portrayed him as a creation of Hollywood producers rather than a self-made businessman.
The new filing lists dozens of allegedly defamatory statements and descriptions pulled from the Times’ coverage and the book.
The amended version still names Craig, Buettner and Times White House correspondent Peter Baker as defendants, but drops reporter Michael S. Schmidt, who had been included in the first filing.
Trump first announced the lawsuit on Truth Social on Sept. 15, calling the Times “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers in the nation’s history.”
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” he wrote.
The original complaint accuses the Times and its reporters of running a “fact-free narrative” about his career, alleging “reputational injury” worth billions of dollars.
“As we said when this was first filed and again after the judge’s ruling to strike it: this lawsuit has no merit,” the Times said in a statement on Thursday.
The suit also targets Penguin Random House, which published the book “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success” by Times journalists Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner. Penguin Press
“Nothing has changed today. This is merely an attempt to stifle independent reporting and generate PR attention, but The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics.”
The Post has sought comment from Random House.
The defamation suit is the latest in a string of Trump-led legal actions against major media outlets. He previously reached multimillion-dollar settlements with ABC News and CBS News following separate defamation and “election interference” claims.
Trump has also sued the Wall Street Journal and its owner, media executive Rupert Murdoch, over coverage linking him to financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Murdoch is chair emeritus of The Post’s parent company, News Corp.
Peter Baker, a White House correspondent for the Times, is named in the suit. Paul Morigi/NBC via Getty Images
In 2023, Trump’s social media company filed a complaint against the Washington Post.
The Times’ coverage of Trump’s finances has been a repeated flashpoint. The paper won a Pulitzer Prize in 2019 for its earlier reporting on Trump family tax practices — work led by the same reporters now named in the lawsuit.
Legal experts say Trump faces long odds in his latest case.
The Post has sought comment from the White House and the Times.