Judge orders Trump to pay New York Times nearly $400K for expenses in 'frivolous lawsuit'

Former President Donald Trump's critics have often accused him of being quick to file frivolous lawsuits. One of the lawsuits that Trump's detractors were critical of was filed against the New York Times — a lawsuit that hasn't ended well for Trump, who, according to reporter Susanne Craig, has been ordered to pay the publication $392,638.69 for legal expenses it incurred.

In the lawsuit, Trump accused the Times and three of its reporters of conspiring with psychologist/author Mary Trump, his niece, in a scheme to obtain his confidential tax records. But Justice Robert R. Reed of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan tossed out the lawsuit in May 2023, ruling that the Times did nothing wrong in the course of its "news gathering activities."

In a tweet posted on Friday afternoon, January 12, Craig reported that Reed had ordered Trump pay the $392,638.69 "for legal fees connected to a frivolous lawsuit he brought against the paper, two of my colleagues and me."

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Craig noted that when Reed tossed out the lawsuit last year, he wrote, "Courts have long recognized that reporters are entitled to engage in legal and ordinary news-gathering activities without fear of tort liability — as these actions are at the very core of protected first amendment activity."

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