(Washington) US President Donald Trump filed a new $15 billion defamation suit against the New York Times on Thursday, a month after a federal judge declared his first request “inappropriate and inadmissible”.
The 40-page text, filed Thursday evening in a Florida court, targets the daily, three of its journalists and a publishing house which published a book signed by two of the journalists prosecuted.
“This legal action concerns numerous defamatory, false and malicious statements concerning President Trump made by the persons sued in two articles and a book,” indicates the complaint, consulted by AFP.
The White House tenant’s lawyers are contesting articles and a book on the origin of the American billionaire’s fortune.
Donald Trump is demanding the astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars against the prestigious American daily.
The president’s first complaint targeted four journalists, in addition to the daily and the publishing house.
A federal judge had sharply rejected it, deploring a particularly “tedious” litany of allusions or unsubstantiated allegations, as well as numerous other considerations “constantly developed with an pompous and annoying luxury of details”, without the complainant clearly stating his grievances.
“A complaint is not a public forum for vituperating or inveighing,” the judge insisted, asking Trump’s lawyers to review their copy and not to go beyond 40 pages to present their grievances.
The first complaint was 85 pages long. The new version removes some political commentary, including passages about Trump’s 2024 election victory.
“The challenged statements unfairly defame and disparage President Trump’s hard-earned professional reputation, which he carefully built over decades as a citizen before becoming President of the United States,” the new complaint alleges.
Danielle Rhoades Ha, spokesperson for New York Times cited by the Washington Postfor his part deemed it unfounded. “As we said in the initial filing (…), this complaint is without merit. Nothing has changed today,” she said.
“This is simply an attempt to muzzle independent journalism and generate media attention, but the New York Times will not be intimidated.”
