Judge rejects Trump’s Washington Post defamation lawsuit

It can be challenging to keep up with the many lawsuits Donald Trump and his team have filed against assorted news organizations, but the president’s media company sued The Washington Post over a 2023 article, accusing the newspaper of a “years-long crusade” and being part of a “conspiracy” to harm the company. As part of its defamation suit, the Trump Media and Technology Group sought $3.8 billion in damages.

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That didn’t go well. The Post reported:

A federal judge on Thursday ruled in favor of The Washington Post, throwing out a $3.8 billion defamation lawsuit filed in 2023 by President Donald Trump’s social media company, Trump Media and Technology Group.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Barber, who is based in Tampa, wrote in a summary docket entry — known as a minute order — that Trump Media “failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence” that The Post “published the allegedly defamatory statements with actual malice.”

Time will tell what becomes of the litigation — an appeal seems likely — though recent history suggests that the plaintiffs should keep their expectations low. Indeed, recent history is highly relevant.

The Trump campaign’s 2020 case against CNN failed. Trump’s 2021 case against The New York Times failed. Trump’s 2023 case against journalist Bob Woodward failed. The Trump campaign’s case against The Washington Post failed. Trump’s class-action lawsuit against social media giants also failed.

Last year, Trump filed a $15 billion civil suit against The New York Times, which was thrown out four days later, not because it lacked merit, but because a federal judge found that the president’s lawyers’ court filing was simply too ridiculous.

Two months later, Trump’s media company also lost a defamation suit against The Guardian.

As recently as April, Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal was also thrown out of court, though he and his lawyers refiled the case a month later.

Americans have never before had a president who sued independent news organizations, individual journalists or both for publishing reports the White House disapproved of, but we have also never before had a president lose so many cases while in office.