FORMER United States president Donald Trump was ordered to pay nearly US$400,000 (RM1.8 million) in legal costs to the New York Times and multiple journalists yesterday after a suit he brought against them was dismissed.

Trump filed a complaint against the newspaper in September 2021, accusing three journalists of engaging in an “insidious plot” to obtain his tax documents as part of an investigative report published in 2018 and that won a Pulitzer Prize.

A judge in the commercial division of the New York state Supreme Court dismissed the case in May 2023, ordering Trump – who is seeking a return to the White House in this year’s election – to pay the defendants’ costs.

The decision issued yesterday said the Times’ estimation of having spent US$392,638 in attorney’s fees appeared “reasonable,” and ordered Trump to reimburse them in full.

The paper’s investigation revealed how Trump – a real estate mogul who has boasted for decades about building his own business fortune – had in fact received the equivalent of US$413 million, adjusted for inflation, from his father over several years, much of which was transferred through a shell company to avoid taxation. – AFP, January 13, 2024.