New York Times editor says outlet will not settle Trump defamation suit that is 'wrong on the facts'

New York Times' Executive Editor Joseph Kahn on Thursday said his outlet will not be settling President Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit like other outlets have, stating that it was not right on the facts or the law.

Trump sued the outlet for defamation and libel on Monday regarding its reporting on him leading up to the 2024 presidential election. The lawsuit is seeking $15 billion and comes after he also sued CBS News, the Wall Street Journal and ABC News.

Kahn said there was no way that the New York Times will settle the lawsuit even though other outlets settled their cases.

“He’s wrong on the facts. He’s wrong on the law. And we’ll fight it. And we’ll win it,” Kahn told Axios. “I don’t think the President of the United States should be suing media organizations for libel. Full stop. 

"I think that’s wrong, especially when he’s wrong on the facts, when he’s wrong about the story, when he misunderstands the protections that the law offers to media organizations under the Supreme Court’s interpretation of libel law," he continued. "I think it’s incumbent on us to fight to the end.”

Trump's lawsuit cites several articles and a book written by two of the paper's journalists, saying they are “part of a decades-long pattern by the New York Times of intentional and malicious defamation against President Trump.”

“Defendants published such statements negligently, with knowledge of the falsity of the statements, and/or with reckless disregard of their truth or falsity,” the lawsuit reads.

Trump trashed the New York Times in a social media post about the lawsuit on Monday as a "full-throated mouthpiece of the Democrat Party."

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.