BENCHSLAP: NY Judge Dropkicks Trump LOLsuit Against NY Times, Orders Him To Pay SLAPP Fees

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Donald Trump had a bad day yesterday in at least two courts. First in a federal courtroom in New York, his trial in the defamation and assault case brought by E. Jean Carroll continued to go disastrously. Then New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Reed dismissed Trump's ridiculous SLAPP suit against the New York Times for tortiously journalisming him and ordered him to pay the paper's legal fees.

Saddest of trombones!

It all started back in October of 2018 when Times reporters Susanne Craig, David Barstow and Russell Beuttner published a blockbuster article on the ways that Donald Trump and his children schemed to siphon off their father Fred Trump's assets before he died to evade state and federal taxes. The article was based on documents given to them by Mary Trump, the former president's niece, who got them decades earlier in a dispute over the estate.

In September of 2021, Donald Trump's sparklemagic lawyer Alina Habba filed a complaint against Craig, Barstow, Beuttner, the Times, and Mary Trump. It alleged that Mary Trump breached the confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement she signed when the family settled the estate, as well as unjust enrichment because she wrote a mean book about him. Trump's claims against his niece remain ongoing, although a New York state court tossed the confidentiality provisions of that agreement back in 2020 when Trump used his brother as a cutout to try to block publication of said book so ... lotsa luck there.

Trump charged the Times defendants with tortious interference with a contract, aiding and abetting tortious interference, unjust enrichment, and (oh, what the hell, why not?) negligent supervision.

All told he demanded $100,000,000, although he was a bit hazy on how he arrived at that precise figure. But no matter, because he's not getting it since you can't sue journalists for publishing stuff people give them. Well, obviously you can sue anyone you want, but you'll be laughed out of court for being bad at law.

"New York courts have consistently rejected efforts to impose tort liability on the press based on allegations that a reporter induced a source to breach a non-disclosure agreement," the judge scolded, noting that newsgathering is a justification which "provides an absolute defense to a tortious interference claim."

So instead Trump will be getting out his checkbook to make the Times whole for all the money it spent fending off this preposterous exercise -- after the inevitable doomed appeal, of course. Because, as Justice Reed noted, "plaintiff's claims plainly constitute a strategic lawsuit against public participation, and, contrary to plaintiff's argument, New York's anti-SLAPP law is directed to more than just defamation-based lawsuits."

That would be NY Civil Rights Law ? 70-a, which has a fee shifting provision for an "action involving public petition and participation [which] was commenced or continued without a substantial basis in fact and law." Indeed, as the court reminded Trump, he himself was one of the inspirations cited by the New York legislature when the anti-SLAPP provision was added to ? 70, which deals with "Vexatious Suits."

"The revised anti-SLAPP law was specifically designed to apply to lawsuits like this one," Judge Reed wrote. "In fact, among other reasons, plaintiff's history of litigation -- that some observers have described as abusive and frivolous -- inspired the expansion of the law."

And no, you can't get around a law specifically inspired by your habit of filing garbage defamation suits by drafting it as a tortious interference claim.

And as set forth earlier- the legislature's expansive changes to the law were, in part, specifically designed to prevent plaintiff himself from filing lawsuits like this one to retaliate against journalists for their reporting. Therefore, it would be unreasonable to conclude that plaintiff could evade the application of a law specifically designed to stop frivolous lawsuits aimed at chilling free speech simply by pleading non-defamation claims.

It's another bigly win for Trump and Habba, who just netted themselves a million dollars in sanctions in a federal court in Florida for that insane RICO clown suit against Hillary Clinton and her best pal James Comey. And considering how many garbage lawsuits Trump has in the hopper, it could be one of many to come.

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics and appears on the Opening Arguments podcast.