US President Donald Trump on Monday sued the New York Times, four of its reporters, and publisher Penguin Random House for at least US$15 billion, claiming defamation and libel, and citing reputational damage, a Florida court filing showed.
Trump’s suit cites a series of New York Times articles, one an editorial prior to last year’s presidential election, which said he was unfit for office, and a book published by Penguin last year 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,” said the filing lodged on Monday at the US District Court, Middle District, Florida.
Photo: Bloomberg
The New York Times and Penguin did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.
The publications have harmed Trump’s business and personal reputation, thereby causing massive economic damage to his brand value and significant damage to his future financial prospects, Trump’s lawyers said in the filing.
“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,” said his lawyers, citing “a precipitous decline in the stock price.”
TMTG stock has been under pressure, fueled by worries about the end of a so-called lockup period related to its stock market debut in March.
The filing comes after Trump last week threatened to sue the New York Times for its reporting on an allegedly sexually suggestive note and drawing given to Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein, the disgraced financier and sex offender, died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019.
Trump has said he parted ways with Epstein before the financier’s legal troubles became public in 2006.
In a social media post, Trump accused the paper of lying about him, his family and businesses, as well as Republican-led movements and ideologies such as the America First Movement, and Make America Great Again.
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