Court says Trump owes New York Times nearly $400K in legal fees

A New York judge ruled Friday that former President Trump owes The New York Times nearly $400,000 in legal fees over his lawsuit targeting the paper that the same judge tossed last year. 

New York Supreme Court Justice Robert Reed said in an order released Friday that the former president has to pay the Times and three of its reporters $392,638.69 for legal fees connected with the lawsuit he brought against them and his niece, Mary Trump, in 2021. 

Reed ordered that the Times and reporters Susanne Craig and Russ Buettner receive $229,921, and reporter David Barstow receive $162,717.69. 

The lawsuit, which Reed dismissed last May, accused the Times reporters and his niece of engaging in a plot to obtain confidential tax records the journalists used for a 2018 article on the former president’s “suspect tax schemes.”

In the lawsuit, Trump claimed the reporters were liable since they allegedly encouraged his niece to give them the confidential tax documents. The former president alleged that by providing the reporters the documents, his niece breached confidentiality provisions dating back to a previous settlement between Trump and herself.

In the ruling tossing the lawsuit, Reed wrote that the courts recognized the reporters’ entitlement to engage in “newsgathering” activities without “fear.” 

“Courts have long recognized that reporters are entitled to engage in legal and ordinary newsgathering activities without fear of tort liability — as these actions are at the very core of protected First Amendment activity,” Reed wrote in the May ruling. 

The Times applauded Friday’s order.

“Today’s decision shows that the state’s newly amended anti-SLAPP statute can be a powerful force for protecting press freedom,” a Times spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill, referring to a law intended to deter lawsuits that are aimed at limiting speech. “The court has sent a message to those who want to misuse the judicial system to try to silence journalists.”