The lawsuit, filed by the president in federal court in Florida, claims The Times defamed him and sought to undermine his campaign in the 2024 election.
President Trump accused The New York Times and four of its reporters of defaming him ahead of the 2024 election, claiming that a series of articles sought to undermine his candidacy and disparage his reputation as a successful businessman.
In a lawsuit filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Mr. Trump said the articles and a book published by two of the journalists were “specifically designed to try and damage President Trump’s business, personal and political reputation.”
According to the complaint, the articles and the book were published with “actual malice” toward Mr. Trump and caused “enormous” economic losses and damage to his “professional and occupational interests.” The lawsuit asked for damages of at least $15 billion.
The defendants named in the suit were The New York Times Company and Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner, Peter Baker and Michael S. Schmidt. The complaint also named Penguin Random House, which published a book about Mr. Trump written by Ms. Craig and Mr. Buettner, as a defendant.
The complaint claims that the defendants timed the publication of the articles and books “at the height of election season to inflict maximum electoral damage against President Trump.”
A spokesman for The Times responded: “This lawsuit has no merit. It lacks any legitimate legal claims and instead is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting. The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics. 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.”
A.G. Sulzberger, the publisher of The Times, said in a note to staff on Tuesday that the lawsuit was “frivolous,” adding that “everyone, regardless of their politics, should be troubled by the growing anti-press campaign led by President Trump and his administration.”
Doubtful that the claims will prevail. However, the filing court in Orlando is one of the courts he has out there that are packed Trump judges. Out of the 12 that sit the bench, 6 are Trump appointments. That said, even with those six in his pocket, it won't be enough to push through the claim in appeals, if it even gets that far. The Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit is the same court that struck down plenty of Florida's Online laws as violating the first amendment.
Even though they are mostly Trump appointments, the court even with them, has had a strong lean to tell the Government when it comes to speech to fuck off. Which also Cartwright which told University of Central Florida their anti-harassment policy went overboard and violated the first amendment.
Do they've demonstrated that there's very little that rises outside of protected speech. Be it a Floridian law banning children online or students yelling slurs. It's definitely a double edge sword, but I can't see this court siding with Trump on this. Defamation for this court has to directly turn into absolute loss, so Trump would have the onus to bring receipts on how it harmed him, which I highly doubt.
But all of this is a great reason why the US Government needs to implement Federal anti-SLAPP protections.