Adds details, backgrounds throughout

By Daniel Wiessner

NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - The New York Times NYT.N accused the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of illegally retaliating against the newspaper for its coverage of the agency by suing it for passing over a white man for a top editorial role, it said in a court filing on Friday.

The countersuit filed in Manhattan federal court seeks to dismiss the EEOC's lawsuit filed in May, a declaration that the agency's actions violate the U.S. Constitution's First and Fifth Amendments, and other remedies.

The Times denied the agency's claims and said its aspirational diversity goals played no role in the company's decision to promote a multiracial woman to a deputy editor position instead of a white man.

"The Commission’s retaliatory, bad faith use of its authority to target The Times ... poses a uniquely insidious threat to a free and independent press, and to our democracy," lawyers for the Times stated in the filing.

The EEOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.