Donald Trump on Monday filed a defamation and libel lawsuit towards the New York Timescalling it some of the “degenerate newspapers” within the U.S., days after the newspaper printed articles about his alleged ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
The U.S. president accused the newspaper of mendacity and defamation, calling it a “virtual mouthpiece” for the Democratic Party.
Trump threatened to sue the NYT final week for its current protection associated to a sexually suggestive be aware and drawing given to Epstein.
“Today, I have the Great Honor of bringing a $15 Billion Dollar Defamation and Libel Lawsuit against The New York Times,” Trump mentioned in a publish on his social media platform, Truth Social.
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” he added.
The NOW has not but issued a touch upon the matter.
Highlighting the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris within the 2024 race, the president mentioned it was “the single largest illegal Campaign contribution, EVER”.
“Their Endorsement of Kamala Harris was actually put dead center on the front page of The New York Times, something heretofore UNHEARD OF!” he mentioned.
He accused the newspaper of “decades long method of lying about your Favorite President (ME!), my family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA, and our Nation as a whole”.
He pointed to earlier lawsuits filed towards ABC News and anchor George Stephanopoulos, in addition to towards Paramount over its 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris, noting that each instances had been settled for $15m and $16m, respectively.
The lawsuit cites a lot of NOW articles, together with one editorial printed previous to the 2024 presidential election which mentioned he was unfit for the workplace, and a 2024 ebook printed by Penguin titled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success”.
“Defendants maliciously published the Book and the Articles knowing that these publications were filled with repugnant distortions and fabrications about President Trump,” in response to the submitting lodged on Monday within the U.S. District Court, Middle District Florida.
In the submitting, Trump’s attorneys argued that the publications broken each his enterprise and private fame, inflicting main financial hurt on his model worth and considerably affecting his future monetary prospects.
“The harm to the value of TMTG (Trump Media and Technology Group) stock is one example of how the defendants’ defamation has injured President Trump,” mentioned his attorneys, citing “a precipitous decline in the stock price.”
Epstein, the disgraced financier and intercourse offender, died by suicide whereas awaiting his personal trial for intercourse trafficking. Since then, the billionaire financier’s alleged connections with and affect over a number of high-profile people together with Prince Andrew, former president Bill Clinton and Trump, have been thrust again into the limelight – with the so-called “Epstein files” turning into a supply of a number of conspiracy theories.
Trump campaigned on releasing extra info, however then, over the summer time, the Department of Justice mentioned no extra info could be launched. That sparked backlash on each side of the political aisle.
Trump has mentioned he parted methods with Epstein earlier than the financier’s authorized troubles grew to become public in 2006.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-suing-new-york-times-lawsuit-defamation-b2827252.html