Federal Judge Permanently Dismisses Trump’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Wall Street Journal
A federal judge dismisses Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over Epstein letter story, ruling no 'actual malice'.
POLICY WIRE — Miami, Florida — A federal judge has permanently dismissed President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch, and the journalists involved in reporting on a controversial letter allegedly written by the president to Jeffrey Epstein.
The letter, reportedly signed by Trump, contained a sexually suggestive drawing and a birthday wish to Epstein, a convicted sex offender. Trump has consistently denied the authenticity of the letter and the signature, filing a $10 billion lawsuit last summer.
On Saturday, Judge Darrin P. Gayles ruled that Trump failed to demonstrate the required ‘actual malice’ to prove defamation. The president’s allegations were described as ‘conclusory, vague, and often irrelevant,’ the judge stated.
The judge emphasized that Trump’s argument—that the newspaper should have disregarded all evidence once he denied the letter’s authenticity—runs counter to the First Amendment and the legal standard for ‘actual malice.’ The ruling also cited a passage from the Supreme Court case The New York Times v. Sullivan, affirming the protection of press freedom.
President Trump’s lawsuit did not include a single plausible allegation that The Wall Street Journal knowingly published false statements about him, the defendants’ lawyers argued in their response last year. The publication of the letter led to further scrutiny of the president’s relationship with Epstein and his alleged connections to a broader network of influential figures.
Despite the dismissal of the lawsuit, the president’s name appears multiple times in the Epstein files, which were released following a law Trump signed. These files have not implicated him in any criminal wrongdoing, and Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein.
The president’s reaction to The Wall Street Journal’s recognition at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in July was notably understated. He joked that it had ‘not been an easy evening’ as the newspaper’s reporters won awards for their investigative work on the Epstein scandal.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
