President of the United States may return to complain within four weeks, but it has to shorten the process for less than half
In a decision full of derision, a federal judge rejected the defamation process filed by US President Donald Trump against The New York Times, stating that the 85 -page process did not follow federal rules for civil complaints.
It was given to the president’s team a month to again present the process and a Trump spokesman indicated that he will do so.
Judge Steven D. Merryday of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida said on Friday that the process “is unambiguously and unlikely to the requirements of rule 8” of the federal rules of civil procedure.
A complaint must be a “short, simple and direct statement of de facto allegations,” he wrote, and Trump’s attack on The Times was “decidedly inappropriate and inadmissible.”
Merryday said Trump’s legal team could again file the complaint in the next four weeks, but has to keep it with 40 pages or less.
A complaint is not supposed to be “a public forum for victim and inventive” or “a megaphone for public relations,” he said.
When Trump filed the case for defamation earlier this week, asking $ 15 billion of compensation, numerous jurists told CNN that the process had no merit and several argued that it was more than one public relations maneuver than a serious case.
The long lawsuit accused the teams of being a “virtual spokesman” of the Democratic Party. Also appoints as defendants Penguin Random House and four team reporters, including two who wrote a book for Penguin, entitled “Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandering His Father’s Fortune and Created The Illusion of Success.”
The complaint sometimes seemed like a pro-artim personal opinion, with pages and pages of compliments ephurable to the president and references repeated to lawsuits that he moved against other media.
The president’s legal team indicated that he will submit an updated complaint.
“President Trump will continue to hold fake news responsible for this powerful process against New York Times, his journalists and Penguin Random House, according to the judge’s guidance on logistics,” said a spokesman for Trump’s legal team in a statement.
A representative of The New York Times did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision.
On Thursday, New York Times executive editor Joe Kahn said at an Axios event that Trump was “wrong about the facts” and “wrong about the law” regarding defamation.
“Let’s fight it and we’ll win,” said Kahn.
Dana Bash contributed her report
