Judge dismisses Trump's $10 billion suit against Wall Street Journal

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami dismissed Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media owner Rupert Murdoch on Saturday. The judge ruled with prejudice, meaning the case is permanently closed and cannot be refiled. Gayles stated that Trump failed to prove the defendants made defamatory statements with actual malice, a legal requirement for public figures.

The dismissal concludes a legal battle over a story published last year regarding Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The Journal reported on a sexually suggestive letter and drawing that bore Trump's name. The items were included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday. According to the newspaper, the letter contained text framed by the outline of a hand-drawn naked woman and ended with the phrase "Happy Birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret." The letter was reportedly collected by Ghislaine Maxwell before Epstein's first arrest in 2006.

Trump denied writing the letter and described the reporting as false, malicious, and defamatory. In the complaint filed in federal court in Miami, he accused the paper and its reporters of knowingly and recklessly publishing false statements. The lawsuit alleged that the coverage caused overwhelming financial and reputational harm to the president. Trump has maintained an adversarial relationship with news organizations during his second term, citing lawsuits involving the BBC, The Associated Press, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico.

Gayles had previously dismissed the suit in April, giving Trump the opportunity to file an amended complaint, which he did in May. In the Saturday ruling, the judge cited the Supreme Court's 1964 decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. That ruling requires proof that a media outlet knowingly published something false or showed a reckless disregard for the truth. Gayles wrote that the amended complaint fell short of pleading actual malice, noting that the allegations were conclusory, vague, and sometimes inconsistent with the article.

The judge observed that the Journal's story did not ignore Trump's denial. He noted that the article informed readers that the president decried the letter as a fake and denied writing it. Gayles also found that several other allegations in the lawsuit did not have merit. He described the suit as an attempt to manufacture flaws in the Journal's investigative reporting. The White House did not immediately react publicly to the dismissal or respond to requests for comment. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.