A federal judge in Tampa, Florida, on Friday struck President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times as “decidedly improper and impermissible,” but will allow Trump to refile a much shorter and less florid amended civil complaint within the next month.
Judge Steven Merryday criticized Trump’s lengthy lawsuit — which accuses the Times of being a “mouthpiece” for the Democratic Party — for being way too long on praise for the president and “superfluous allegations.”
Merryday noted that the suit, which was only filed Monday, “consumes” 85 pages, and that Trump’s two civil counts against the newspaper are only detailed in the last few pages, after many, many pages of fulminating about Trump’s foes and boasting of his business and political accomplishments.
“As every lawyer knows (or is presumed to know), a complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective — not a protected platform to rage against an adversary,” wrote Merryday, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President George H.W. Bush.
“A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally or the functional equivalent of the Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner,” the judge said, referring to London’s famed free-speech haven.
