In the amended complaint, Trump accused the defendants of defaming him through two articles and a book published last year ahead of the presidential election.
President Donald Trump on Oct. 16 refiled his $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, book publisher Penguin Random House, and three NY Times reporters after a judge’s earlier rejection of the case.
In a 40-page amended complaint, Trump accused the defendants of defamation over two articles and a book published last year ahead of the presidential election, alleging they contained statements intended to “wrongly defame and disparage” his professional reputation.
The lawsuit named NY Times reporters Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner, as well as NY Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker, among the defendants.
According to the filing, among the alleged defamatory statements are claims that Trump received more than $400 million from his father through “fraudulent tax evasion schemes.” The complaint also cited The New York Times’s coverage of his role in the TV series “The Apprentice” and its statements about his compliance with federal tax laws.
“Defendants individually and collectively published numerous false, malicious, and defamatory statements while realizing that these statements were false, or, at a minimum, with reckless disregard for the truth,” the lawsuit reads.
Trump is seeking $15 billion in compensatory damages—consistent with his original suit filed on Sept. 15—and an unspecified amount of punitive damages, which will be determined upon trial.
The Epoch Times reached out to The New York Times and Penguin Random House for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday previously tossed the original complaint due to its length, saying that it “stands unmistakably and inexcusably athwart the requirements of Rule 8” of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The judge then gave Trump 28 days to amend the lawsuit.
The first complaint amounted to 85 pages.
A spokesperson for The New York Times previously told The Epoch Times that Trump’s lawsuit was meritless and called it an attempt by the president to “stifle and discourage independent reporting.”
