A federal judge just tossed out Donald Trump’s $15 billion lawsuit against The New York Times, saying a courtroom is not a place for a “passionate oration at a political rally.” U.S. District Court Judge Steven Merryday, a George H.W. Bush appointee, ruled that the lawsuit was “improper and impermissible,” and that it could not be used as a substitute for the “Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner.”
Trump’s lawsuit claimed that the newspaper, four of its reporters, and book publisher Penguin Random House had defamed him during their coverage of the 2020 presidential election. According to the lawsuit, the publication was trying to “ruin his reputation,” “harm his campaign,” and “prejudice judges and juries against him.”
