A New York state judge ordered former President Donald Trump to pay The New York Times a six-figure legal fee over a now-dismissed lawsuit he brought against the paper.
Trump faces another loss at court with a $392,638.69 fine to pay for the journalists’ legal fees, according to Time’s reporter Susanne Craig, who slammed the lawsuit in which she was included as “frivolous.”
In May 2023, New York Supreme Court Justice Robert R. Reed dismissed a lawsuit brought forward by Trump against the Times and three of its reporters. The Republican leader had tried to sue the Times in 2021 over their Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on Trump’s financial portfolio. Reed ruled that the Times reporters were “entitled to engage in legal and ordinary news-gathering activities without fear or tort liability — as their actions are at the very core of protected first amendment activity.”
At the time, the judge noted that Trump’s legal claims in the lawsuit “fail as a matter of constitutional law.” Craig, one of the reporters listed in the original lawsuit, shared a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, about Trump’s latest legal trouble.
This just happened: A New York State judge has ordered Donald Trump to pay The New York Times $392,638.69 for legal fees connected to a frivolous lawsuit he brought against the paper, two of my colleagues and me.👍https://t.co/17TJesOEn5
— Susanne Craig (@susannecraig) January 12, 2024
According to the judge’s decision, over $229,000 of the $392,000 legal fee must be paid to Craig and Times reporter Russell Buettner while Trump must pay $162,717 to journalist David Barstow.
As of publishing, Trump has not issued a statement via social media or a spokesperson reacting to the latest legal development.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
