(Reuters) -The chief executive officer of the New York Times, Meredith Kopit Levien, said the company would "not be cowed" by U.S. President Donald Trump’s $15-billion lawsuit against the newspaper, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
The suit is the latest in Trump's flurry of legal attacks on media during his second term, including a $10-billion defamation case against the Wall Street Journal in July.
The lawsuit was legally baseless, Levien told a Financial Times conference in remarks the paper called her first public utterance on the matter.
"The lawsuit has no merit. It lacks any legitimate legal claims. I believe its purpose is to stifle independent journalism, to deter the kind of fact-based reporting that the Times and other institutions are known for."
She added, "There is an anti-press playbook at this point . . . The New York Times will not be cowed by this."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Monday's suit, Trump accused the paper of maliciously publishing articles and a book filled with "repugnant distortions and fabrications about President Trump".
In response to a Reuters request for comment on the filing, the paper said on Tuesday the lawsuit had no legitimate legal claims and was a bid to stifle and discourage independent reporting.
(Reporting by Preetika Parashuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
