Judge Tosses Trump's $15B Suit Against New York Times

A federal judge has dismissed President Trump's $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, sharply criticizing the former president's lengthy complaint as improper for federal court. US District Judge Steven Merryday, a George HW Bush appointee, on Friday described Trump's sprawling 85-page lawsuit as "decidedly ... impermissible" under federal court rules, which require "a short and plain statement of why he deserves relief," as Reuters puts it. Trump was given 28 days to file a new complaint that must number fewer than 40 pages. Key lines from Merryday, per the Washington Post:

• "Alleging only two simple counts of defamation, the complaint consumes eighty-five pages. Count I appears on page eighty, and Count II appears on page eighty-three."
• "The reader of the complaint must labor through allegations, such as 'a new journalistic low for the hopelessly compromised and tarnished 'Gray Lady.'"
• Merryday noted that all lawyers should be aware that such complaints cannot serve as a "public forum for vituperation and invective."

Trump's legal team vowed to keep pursuing the lawsuit "in accordance with the judge's direction on logistics."