President Donald Trump filed a $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times and its reporters on Sept. 15, accusing the newspaper of defamation.
Trump filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Florida over articles and a book written by two New York Times reporters and published during the height of the 2024 election, alleging that they were crafted with “actual malice, calculated to inflict maximum damage” on him.
“Defendants maliciously published the book and the articles knowing that these publications were filled with repugnant distortions and fabrications about President Trump,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit also named book publisher Penguin Random House as one of the defendants.
A spokesperson for the NY Times said the lawsuit “has no merit,” calling it an attempt by the president to “stifle and discourage independent reporting.”
“The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics. We will continue to pursue the facts without fear or favor and stand up for journalists’ First Amendment right to ask questions on behalf of the American people,” the spokesperson told The Epoch Times via email.
A Penguin Random House spokesperson said in an emailed statement that Trump’s lawsuit is meritless.
“Penguin Random House stands by the book and its authors and will continue to uphold the values of the First Amendment that are fundamental to our role as a book publisher,” the spokesperson stated.
Trump announced the lawsuit in a Truth Social post, saying that The New York Times had become “a virtual mouthpiece for the radical left Democrat Party” and citing its endorsement of then-Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Their Endorsement of Kamala Harris was actually put dead center on the front page of The New York Times, something heretofore UNHEARD OF,” he said.
Trump accused The New York Times of spreading lies about him, his family, his businesses, the America First Movement, the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, and the nation as a whole.
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW,” the president said in his post.
In his post, Trump also referenced previous lawsuits he filed against ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos and another against Paramount and CBS. Both cases were settled for “record amounts,” he said.
The first case stemmed from Trump’s allegations that Stephanopoulos defamed him when stating, during an interview, that a federal jury found Trump liable for rape.
ABC News and Stephanopoulos subsequently agreed to a settlement, which included a $15 million charitable contribution, $1 million for Trump’s attorney fees, and a formal apology.
In the second case, Trump filed a lawsuit against Paramount—the parent company to major broadcasting networks such as CBS, MTV, Nickelodeon, and others—over CBS’s “60 Minutes” interview with Harris ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Trump’s lawsuit alleged that CBS edited the interview to benefit Harris in the election.
Trump announced in July that Paramount had paid $16 million to settle the lawsuit, adding that he anticipated another $20 million from the “new owners” of the company, which he said would come in the form of “advertising, PSAs [public service announcements], or similar programming.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled George Stephanopoulos’s name. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
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