A federal judge in Florida has struck down U.S. President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times and Penguin Random House for being too long. The judge said that the 85-page long complaint was “improper and impermissible.”
Tampa US District Judge Steven D. Merryday gave Donald Trump 28 days to file an amended complaint, saying that it must not exceed 40 pages in length. “Alleging only two simple counts of defamation, the complaint consumes eighty-five pages,” the judge said.
The order added, “Even assuming that each allegation in the complaint is true… a complaint remains an improper and impermissible place for the tedious and burdensome aggregation of prospective evidence, for the rehearsal of tendentious arguments, or for the protracted recitation and explanation of legal authority putatively supporting the pleader’s claim for relief.”
Judge Merryday further said, “A complaint is not a megaphone for public relations or a podium for a passionate oration at a political rally or the functional equivalent of the Hyde Park Speakers’ Corner.”
