The legal fees keep piling up for former President Donald Trump. This time he had to pay the lawyers of the company he tried to sue.
Trump paid $392,000 to The New York Times to cover the legal fees and costs after his failed attempt to sue the Times for confidential tax records reporting from 2018, CNN reported Monday night.
Trump was ordered to pay that amount in January after Democrat New York Justice Robert Reed granted the Times' motion to dismiss Trump's lawsuit against the Times and its reporters of the story, ruling "the Times' purpose in reporting on a story of a high public interest constitutes justification as a matter of law."
Trump's lawsuit called out the journalists' "tortious interference" for seeking his niece to obtain confidential tax records and causing her to breach a contract with the Trump family, according to CNN.
The Times' David Barstow, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner won a 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting on the series that drew the Trump lawsuit.
Roberts' ruling cited new New York Constitution amendments to its anti-SLAPP law (strategic lawsuits against public participation), which permits defendants to call for quick dismissal of lawsuits pertaining to the First Amendment, arguing Trump's lawsuit was a violation of the newly amended state Constitution and made the former president liable for the Times' and their reporters' legal fees.
"This decision shows that the state's newly amended anti-SLAPP statute can be a powerful force for protecting press freedom," Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander told CNN in a statement Monday. "The court has sent a message to those who want to misuse the judicial system to try to silence journalists."
Trump representatives have not yet replied to a CNN request for comment.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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