Trump New York Times lawsuit can be amended again, judge says
A federal judge gave Trump until Aug. 27 to revise his defamation complaint as the Times says the case lacks legal merit.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
A federal judge has allowed the Trump New York Times lawsuit to get another rewrite, giving Donald Trump until Aug. 27 to file a revised defamation complaint while the newspaper and other defendants press to have the case thrown out.
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday granted Trump’s request for another amended complaint after a hearing last week on the defendants’ motion to dismiss, Deadline reported.
Trump sued The New York Times in September over coverage and a book that examined his public image, including the claim that his celebrity was shaped by Mark Burnett and NBC’s The Apprentice. The case names the Times, reporters Susanne Craig and Ross Buettner, Penguin Random House and Times reporter Peter Baker as defendants, according to Deadline.
What is the Trump New York Times lawsuit about?
The lawsuit centers on Times pieces and the Craig-Buettner book Lucky Loser, with Trump challenging statements about his fame, business persona and media rise. Defamation cases brought by public figures require a plaintiff to show actual malice, meaning the defendant knew a statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for whether it was false.
One challenged article by Craig and Buettner was headlined “The Star-Making Machine That Created ‘Donald Trump,’” according to Deadline. Baker’s article, also cited in the case, carried the headline “For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment.”
Merryday previously dismissed Trump’s original complaint but permitted him to try again. Trump filed an amended version in October that singled out passages from the book and Times articles, including one line saying Mark Burnett’s The Apprentice made Trump’s “fact-free bubble” national and profitable in ways Trump did not accomplish alone, Deadline reported.
Why did the defendants ask the judge to dismiss it?
The Times and the other defendants argued that the case belongs in New York rather than Florida, calling Florida an improper venue, according to Deadline. They also said Trump had not plausibly alleged actual malice.
The defendants further argued that many of the statements Trump challenged are the authors’ subjective readings of undisputed facts, and therefore cannot be proven false, Deadline reported.
After last week’s hearing, Merryday noted that Trump’s lawyers asked for time to address any shortcomings in the complaint. According to Deadline, Trump’s team said it wanted to show why the challenged statements were not substantially true, add facts and alleged innuendo supporting defamation, and offer more evidence of actual malice for each defendant.
What did Trump and The Times say?
Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social that the Times had “failed again” in trying to get the lawsuit dismissed. He said the updated complaint would describe, in detail, what he alleged was actual malice by the Times in defaming him, his family, the MAGA movement and America.
Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for The New York Times, said in a statement that Merryday’s decision did not endorse Trump’s accusations and only gave him another opportunity to file a complaint showing legal merit.
Stadtlander said Trump had already had that chance twice and failed, and said the Times stands by its journalism. He added that the newspaper would keep defending its reporters’ constitutional rights and the public’s right to know.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.