A judge dismissed President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against Penguin Random House and the New York Times, ABC News reports.
Trump filed the suit last week against the publisher and newspaper as well as Times reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig, authors of the 2024 book Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. Times reporters Peter Baker and Michael S. Schmidt were also named as defendants in the suit.
In Lucky Loser, published by Penguin Press, Buettner and Craig cast doubt on Trump’s claims that he made a massive fortune from a “small loan” from his father, real estate developer Fred Trump. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Two investigative reporters turn the Trump origin story on its head.”
Trump sued the publisher, newspaper, and reporters for $15 billion, calling the book “malicious, defamatory, and disparaging.” The Times said in a statement, “This lawsuit has no merit. It lacks any legitimate legal claims and instead is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting.”
U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday dismissed the 85-page suit based on procedure, writing, “A complaint is a short, plain, direct statement of allegations of fact sufficient to create a facially plausible claim for relief and sufficient to permit the formulation of an informed response.…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.”
Merryday gave Trump’s attorneys 28 days to refile the suit.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
