Trump to file $15bn defamation, libel suit against NYT over Epstein reports

The US president has cited the reputational damage caused by the newspaper’s coverage of his relationship with Epstein.

United States President Donald Trump has said he is bringing a $15bn “defamation and libel lawsuit” against The New York Times (NYT) over its coverage of his family and political movement, and cited reputational damage over the newspaper’s reporting regarding his relationship with disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday, adding the lawsuit was being lodged in Florida’s district court.

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Trump’s suit cites a series of NYT articles, including an editorial written before the 2024 presidential election, which said he was unfit for office.

Trump decried the newspaper as a “virtual ‘mouthpiece’ for the Radical Left Democrat Party” and accused it of lying about his “family, business, the America First Movement, MAGA, and our Nation as a whole”. He did not provide any evidence for his claims.

US publisher Penguin Random House was also cited in the lawsuit for a book it published in 2024 titled Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success.

“Defendants maliciously published the Book and the Articles knowing that these publications were filled with repugnant distortions and fabrications about President Trump,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in the filing.

The publications have harmed Trump’s business and personal reputation, causing significant economic damage to his brand value and future financial prospects, according to the filing.

Al Jazeera contacted NYT for comment, but had not yet received a response at the time of publication.

Penguin Random House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.

Trump’s announcement comes a week after the NYT reported that Trump had threatened legal action against it in relation to articles on an allegedly sexually suggestive birthday note given to Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019.

The Republican president has denied authoring the note, saying he parted ways with Epstein before the financier’s legal troubles became public in 2006.

Trump has intensified his attacks on traditional mainstream media since his return to the White House, repeatedly denigrating journalists critical of his administration, restricting access and bringing lawsuits.

He sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal for at least $10bn in July after the publication of an article about his friendship with Epstein.

Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit over election coverage on CBS News’ flagship show 60 Minutes for $16m the same month. He had alleged that the programme deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, in her favour.

ABC News also agreed to pay $15m over inaccurate on-air comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos that Trump had been “found liable for raping” writer E Jean Carroll. Trump had been found liable for sexual abuse – a different transgression from rape under New York law – in a 2023 case filed by Carroll.

Trump is also taking action against other media whose coverage he opposes, including The Associated Press news agency, which was barred from the White House pool and from travelling on his government plane after refusing to adopt his renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”.