(AFP) – Donald Trump filed a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times on Monday, adding to the US president’s growing list of legal attacks on news organizations he accuses of bias against him.
Trump, 79, has intensified his long-established hostility toward the media since his return to the White House, repeatedly badmouthing journalists critical of his administration, restricting access, and bringing lawsuits demanding huge amounts of compensation.
In his suit filed Monday in federal court in Florida, Trump accuses The New York Times of a “decades-long pattern” of smears driven by feelings of “actual malice.” The Times reported last week that Trump had threatened legal action against it in relation to its articles on a lewd birthday note he allegedly gave to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A copy of the alleged note was later released by US lawmakers. The Republican president has denied authoring the note.
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. The lawsuit also named four New York Times reporters and the publisher Penguin Random House as defendants, according to an 85-page complaint filed in the US District Court for Florida’s Middle District.
The document cited three articles that came out between September and October last year, and a book by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig also published around that time. “The Book and Articles are part of a decades-long pattern by the New York Times of intentional and malicious defamation against President Trump,” read the complaint, which was dated Monday.
“The Times has become a leading, and unapologetic, purveyor of falsehoods against President Trump on the legacy media landscape.” In a statement posted on X, The Times said Trump’s case “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,” it added.
– Other suits – Trump’s lawsuit alleged that the Times deviated from its typical journalistic patterns and industry best practices when covering him, such as writing articles “in the most antagonistic and negative way” and not giving him sufficient time to respond before publishing.
“Put bluntly, Defendants baselessly hate President Trump in a deranged way,” the complaint read. The court was asked to grant compensatory damages of not less than $15 billion and additional punitive damages “in an amount to be determined upon trial.”
While broad constitutional protections exist for US media, Trump has found success in similar lawsuits brought against other news organizations, winning multi-million dollar settlements from Disney-owned ABC and Paramount-owned CBS. However, the settlements in those cases — which are to be paid to Trump’s future presidential library — were seen as being motivated by the desire of the news organizations’ parent companies to stay in Trump’s good graces.
Trump has also sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal for at least $10 billion, after it reported in July on the existence of the letter he allegedly sent to Epstein.
© 2024 AFP
