Judge tosses out Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against The New York Times

“Alleging only two simple counts of defamation, the complaint consumes eighty-five pages. Count I appears on page eighty, and Count II appears on page eighty-three … Even under the most generous and lenient application of Rule 8, the complaint is decidedly improper and impermissible,” Merryday wrote in his response (per The Guardian). He noted the “many, often repetitive, and laudatory (toward President Trump) but superfluous allegations,” and “much more, persistently alleged in abundant, florid, and enervating detail.” The order does not address the merit of Trump’s defamation claims, instead dismissing them on the basis that “a complaint remains an improper and impermissible place for the tedious and burdensome aggregation of prospective evidence, for the rehearsal of tendentious arguments, or for the protracted recitation and explanation of legal authority putatively supporting the pleader’s claim for relief.”

In a statement, The New York Times said, “We welcome the judge’s quick ruling, which recognized that the complaint was a political document rather than a serious legal filing.” But the battle may not be over yet. Trump and his team now have four weeks to re-file their suit (and cut it down to no more than 40 pages), which they have indicated they will do. In a statement, a spokesperson for the president’s legal team said, “President Trump 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.”