The New York Times filed a counterclaim Friday in opposition to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accusing the company of retaliating in opposition to the publication for its reporting through a race- and gender-based discrimination lawsuit.
The countersuit follows an EEOC lawsuit filed in May on behalf of a White staffer, Bryant Rousseau, who claimed the Times had denied him a promotion to deputy editor on the premise of his race and gender.
The Times forged the EEOC’s motion as politically motivated in its submitting on Friday. The newspaper highlighted that the EEOC’s lawsuit got here eight days after a Times report confirmed that workers on the company mentioned they have been beneath stress to pursue discrimination circumstances that “match (President Donald) Trump’s agenda” opposing variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives.
Shortly following its article on the EEOC, the Times reported that the company was poised to sue after investigating a declare in opposition to the newspaper — later revealed to be Rousseau’s case. The EEOC sued the Times two days later.
Friday’s countersuit alleges that the EEOC’s lawsuit was filed despite the fact that the probe discovered “no evidence that race or sex was considered.”
“Despite pursuing an eight-month investigation of the Charge … the Commission tellingly does not (and could not) point to any evidence in its Complaint to show that Rousseau was discriminated against on the basis of his race or sex in connection with The Times’s hiring of a Real Estate Deputy Editor,” the Times’ attorneys write within the countersuit.
The Times additionally alleges that the EEOC’s lawsuit “was filed by a Commission that has expressly disavowed any independence from the President and is expressly committed to pursuing his agenda.”
“The Commission’s retaliatory, bad faith use of its authority to target The Times violates the First and Fifth Amendments and the Administrative Procedure Act (‘APA’) and poses a uniquely insidious threat to a free and independent press, and to our democracy,” attorneys allege elsewhere within the lawsuit.
The EEOC declined to remark, citing its ongoing lawsuit.
This isn’t the Times’ first authorized struggle with the Trump administration.
In September 2025, Trump filed a separate $15 billion defamation lawsuit in opposition to the Times, accusing it of being a “virtual mouthpiece” for the Democratic Party. A choose dismissed Trump’s swimsuit however allowed him to file an amended grievance.
The Times, in the meantime, sued the Department of Defense over restrictions on press entry in December.
The EEOC’s lawsuit “attacks a news organization that the President has repeatedly disparaged for its newsgathering and reporting,” the Times attorneys write within the countersuit.
The EEOC initially introduced the grievance with out figuring out Rousseau, who later joined the lawsuit in May. While the May grievance demanded Rousseau’s promotion to deputy editor, a June filing signifies he left the corporate.
In a statement in May, a Times spokesperson mentioned the publication “categorically rejects the politically motivated allegations brought by the Trump administration’s EEOC.”
“Our employment practices are merit-based and focused on recruiting and promoting the best talent in the world,” the Times mentioned. “We will defend ourselves vigorously.”
The countersuit makes a number of requests, together with the dismissal of the EEOC’s swimsuit with prejudice and the disbursement of “reasonable costs and attorney’s fees.”