On Monday, President Trump sued The New York Times, several authors and New York Times reporters, and Penguin Random House for defamation seeking $15 billion dollars in damages. President Trump filed the 85-page complaint in Florida federal court. Yesterday, a federal judge sua sponte dismissed the complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8.

The complaint contained two counts for defamation and points to three articles and one book titled, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. President Trump claimed that certain reporting, including The New York Times' Editorial Board's endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for President, defamed him because “[t]he Board asserted hypocritically and without evidence that President Trump would 'defy the norms and dismantle the institutions that have made our country strong.'” President Trump also claimed that the articles “represent a new journalistic low for the hopelessly compromised and tarnished ‘Gray Lady.’” 

In the Court’s opinion, Judge Merryday (appointed by a George H.W. Bush), explains that the “complaint stands unmistakably and inexcusably athwart the requirements of Rule 8.” The Court held that the reader must “labor” through numerous allegations about The Apprentice, “an account of the ‘Russia Collusion Hoax,’” and much more before reaching the defamation counts at paragraph 131. Judge Merryday wrote, “[a]s 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. A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally.” The Court gave President Trump 28 days to re-file the complaint.

We will keep you posted!