Legal experts doubt Trump’s chances in his $15B defamation suit against The New York Times
President Donald Trump sued The New York Times Monday, demanding at least $15 billion in damages for what he alleges has been defamatory coverage of his rise to power.
The lawsuit — which names three individual Times reporters and publisher Penguin Random House in addition to the Times company — was filed in federal court in Florida. In his complaint, Trump alleges that the reporters defamed him over the course of three articles and a book published in the months leading up to the 2024 presidential election.
“Defendants made numerous other malicious, defamatory, and disparaging claims about President Trump in the Book and the Articles, including about his family, his overwhelming success, his businesses, his acumen, his brand, his wealth, and much more,” the complaint reads. “This is all consistent with the modus operandi of the New York Times and its so-called journalists—a pattern of falsehoods and defamation.”
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