Judge Dismisses Trump's $10 Billion Wall Street Journal Suit Over Epstein Letter

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami permanently dismissed Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media executive Rupert Murdoch on Saturday. The judge threw out the case with prejudice, meaning the president can no longer refile the claims. Gayles stated that the lawsuit attempted to manufacture flaws in the investigative reporting and called the legal arguments "grasping at straws." The ruling concluded that the defendants did not demonstrate actual malice, a high standard required for public figures to win defamation cases.

The legal dispute stems from a story published last year regarding a 2003 birthday album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. The newspaper reported that the album contained a sexually suggestive letter and a drawing attributed to Trump. The letter was framed by the outline of a hand-drawn naked woman and concluded with the phrase, "Happy Birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret." Ghislaine Maxwell, the disgraced British socialite, reportedly collected the item years before Epstein's first arrest in 2006. Trump denied writing the note and labeled the coverage false, malicious, and defamatory.

This dismissal marks a recent setback for the administration, which has engaged in ongoing conflicts with news organizations. In addition to the Journal, the president is involved in litigation with the BBC, The Associated Press, and CNN. The latter group, along with MS NOW and Politico, is currently suing for restored access after being banished from the White House in mid-September. Trump has frequently denounced outlets that publish stories he opposes, often using the term "fake news" to describe their work.

The case has a procedural history that dates back to April. Judge Gayles initially dismissed the suit, finding that the initial complaint failed to argue the article was published with malicious intent. He allowed the president to file an amended complaint, which occurred in May. In his new ruling, Gayles cited the 1964 Supreme Court decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. That precedent requires public figures to prove that a media outlet knowingly published false information or showed a reckless disregard for the truth.

In the written decision, Gayles noted that the amended allegations regarding malice were conclusory and vague. He observed that some claims were inconsistent with the article itself. The judge also pointed out that the story did not ignore Trump's denial. Instead, the reporting informed readers that the president decried the letter as a fake and denied writing it. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

The dismissal removes the financial threat of the $10 billion claim from the Journal and Murdoch. The ruling stands as a permanent bar to the specific claims made in the federal court in Miami.