A federal judge in Florida on Friday reportedly dismissed President Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, not on the merits, but on the grounds that the complaint his attorneys filed earlier this week was overly lengthy.
Judge Steven Merryday, appointed to the federal bench by former President George H. W. Bush, said the filing needed to be streamlined before it could be considered by the court.
“A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally or the functional equivalent of the Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner,” Merryday wrote in his order. He emphasized that his court was not a venue for Trump to “rage against an adversary,” while allowing the president’s attorneys 28 days to submit an amended version.
The president’s lawsuit targets The Times and several of its reporters, accusing them of defamation and alleging that the newspaper “acted with reckless disregard for the truth” in its coverage of him ahead of the 2024 election.
The suit represents the latest battle between Trump and what he has long described as a hostile press corps determined to damage his political standing.
For its part, The Times dismissed the claims. When the lawsuit was filed, the company called Trump’s complaint “without merit.”
Joseph Kahn, the paper’s executive editor, struck a defiant tone during an Axios Media Trends Live event Thursday. “He’s wrong on the facts; he’s wrong on the law. And we’ll fight it, and we’ll win,” Kahn said, adding that he saw no scenario in which the Times would consider a settlement.
Trump, however, has shown little interest in retreat. For years he has railed against the Times and other mainstream outlets he argues give him unfair treatment.
In recent days, he has sharpened his criticism, threatening to review the broadcast licenses of television networks and using the authority of the Federal Communications Commission to signal that the era of unaccountable corporate media may be coming to a close.
His legal team echoed that determination on Friday. In a statement a spokesperson said the president “will continue to hold the Fake News accountable through this powerhouse lawsuit against the New York Times, its reporters, and Penguin Random House, in accordance with the judge’s direction on logistics.”
Although Merryday’s order delays the case, it does not eliminate it. Trump’s attorneys will now have the opportunity to refile a leaner complaint, one more narrowly tailored to the legal issues at hand.
For the president’s supporters, the episode underscores the challenges of taking on media institutions that enjoy constitutional protections and vast financial resources, even as they acknowledge that such protections do not include the right to spread falsehoods with “reckless disregard for the truth.”
For Trump, the lawsuit serves both as a legal challenge and a political statement: that the nation’s most powerful media companies are not above scrutiny and must be held to account.
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