NY Times Asks Judge to Dismiss Trump’s ‘Implausible’ Defamation Suit

The New York Times asked a judge to once again dismiss President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit, arguing the complaint is based on “implausible allegations” that cannot overcome First Amendment protections.

The suit fails to explain exactly how dozens of disputed statements found in a book and two news articles at the center of the case are false, the New York Times said in a filing Monday in federal court in Tampa, Florida.

The news organization also said that, if the case isn’t dismissed, it should be transferred from Florida to Manhattan, where Trump built his real estate empire, filmed his TV show The Apprentice and was accused of avoiding state taxes 鈥� subjects covered by the disputed book and articles.

“Almost all the relevant reporting on these topics occurred, unsurprisingly, in the New York area, and none happened in this district,” the New York Times said in the filing, referring to the court in Tampa.

Trump initially filed the suit Sept. 15, accusing the paper of serving as a “mouthpiece” for Democrats and pitting himself against one of the world’s oldest and most prominent news organizations. Penguin Random House LLC was also named in the suit in relation to a book by Times reporters called Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. Both companies deny wrongdoing.

The motion to dismiss was filed just as Trump brought a $10 billion defamation case against the BBC over a misleading edit of his speeches before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters. Trump has also sued the Wall Street Journal for defamation, which it denies, and received settlements from ABC and CBS over different reports.

A representative for Trump’s legal team didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

A judge in September tossed the first version of Trump’s suit against the Times a few days after it was filed, finding his lawyer failed to follow court rules requiring “short, plain, direct” claims. The judge ordered Trump to file a in October, which he did, stripping out details about his rise to fame and fortune and his 2024 election victory over Kamala Harris.

The new complaint still praises Trump’s “hard-earned, sterling reputation” and describes him as a “globally celebrated businessman” who “possesses a unique charisma,” highlighting elements of his reputation that were allegedly damaged by the newspaper.

The New York Times said the new complaint failed to heed the judge’s warning to strip out irrelevant facts about the president and focus on how each disputed statement is allegedly defamatory.

The complaint instead “focuses on scoring political points against President Trump’s perceived enemies in the press instead of ‘precisely, directly’ identifying facts to support a viable legal claim,” the news organization said.

The New York Times, like other news organizations sued by Trump, argues the president cannot meet the proving defamation. The legal doctrine requires that plaintiffs in defamation lawsuits show that journalists acted with “actual malice,” meaning they knew what they were reporting was false or acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth.

Photo: The New York Times headquarters in New York.