US President Donald Trump has refiled his $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, weeks after a federal judge dismissed the original case for being excessively long and overly ornate.
The renewed filing signals the latest development in Trump’s ongoing legal campaign against media outlets he accuses of bias and unfair treatment.
Court documents obtained by AFP show that the new lawsuit, filed Thursday, October 16, in Florida, is 40 pages long—less than half the length of the previous 85-page complaint that Judge Steven Merryday rejected in September. The judge criticized the earlier filing for “florid writing,” repetition, and excessive length.
The updated complaint targets what Trump describes as “false, defamatory, and malicious publications,” including two articles by The New York Times and a book published by Penguin Random House. The suit names the newspaper, three reporters, and the publisher as defendants.
Trump’s legal team argues that these publications “wrongly defame and disparage President Trump’s hard-earned professional reputation, which he painstakingly built for decades” before his political career. The lawsuit accuses the defendants of acting “with actual malice,” a critical legal standard in US defamation law.
The filing seeks at least $15 billion in compensatory damages, along with additional punitive damages “to be determined at trial.”
Trump’s lawyers frame the lawsuit as part of a broader fight against what they call “media corruption and political persecution.” The former president has frequently criticized major news organizations—including The New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post—labeling their coverage as “fake news.”
Since returning to the White House, Trump has launched several defamation suits. In July 2025, he filed a $10 billion lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal, alleging false reporting linking him to a letter tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
That same month, Trump reached a $16 million settlement with Paramount Global over a segment on CBS’s 60 Minutes, which he claimed was deceptively edited to favor his 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris.
While critics argue that Trump’s lawsuits aim to intimidate the press, his supporters say they are necessary to hold media outlets accountable for politically motivated misinformation.
The New York Times has not yet responded publicly to the latest filing.
Trump Refiles $15 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Against The New York Times
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