Judge Doesn’t Toss Trump’s $15 Billion New York Times Lawsuit, But It Must Be Amended

A federal judge did not immediately dismiss President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, but will require the president to file an amended complaint in the next month, according to an order signed on Monday.Key factsIn an order signed on Monday, District Court Judge Steven D. Merryday deferred on the Times’ motion to dismiss Trump’s defamation suit against the paper, allowing the president to file an amended complaint by Aug. 27.Merryday’s order on Monday did not elaborate on why the suit needed to be revised before his ruling on the motion to dismiss, and the order says it will give the Times three weeks to respond to the amended complaint.Trump celebrated the order as a victory on Monday, insisting in a post on Truth Social the newspaper “failed again in their desperate attempt to have our powerful Defamation Lawsuit against them dropped.”Key backgroundTrump filed the $15 billion lawsuit against the Times, multiple reporters at the paper and book publisher Penguin Random House last September, alleging the paper defamed him by making false statements about his “hard-earned and world-renowned reputation for business success” and attempting to “sabotage” his 2024 presidential campaign. The suit pointed to articles written by the reporters and a book written by two, called “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.” Merryday threw out the original 85-page-long lawsuit that same month, ordering Trump to refile a lawsuit with “simple, concise, and direct” claims. “A complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective — not a protected platform to rage against an adversary,” Merryday wrote at the time. The judge gave Trump another 28 days to file another complaint under 40 pages, which was filed in October. The New York Times moved to dismiss this complaint for failing to state a claim.What to watch forThe amended complaint can go over Merryday’s previous 40-page limit, as long as it “comprises factual allegations consistent with the applicable rules.”