The case turned on the actual malice standard from New York Times v. Sullivan, where the Supreme Court required that public figures prove that writers either knew that a statement was false or acted in reckless disregard of the truth. Judge Fox ruled that the writing was clearly not malicious and dismissed the case against O’Brien and Warner Books.
In a 2007 deposition, Trump insisted “I am a billionaire, many times over, on a conservative basis.”
After the summary judgment, Trump responded that “it tells you how unfair the libel laws are. We proved our case.”
Trump had tried to get the names of the anonymous sources cited in the book.
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