Judge permanently dismisses Trump's $10 billion Wall Street Journal lawsuit

A federal judge in Miami has permanently thrown out a $10 billion lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against The Wall Street Journal and media executive Rupert Murdoch. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the case with prejudice on Saturday. This legal ruling prevents the president from refiled the suit in the future.

The lawsuit centered on a story published last year by The Wall Street Journal. The article reported that a sexually suggestive letter and drawing, which bore Trump’s name, appeared in a 2003 album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday. The newspaper stated that disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell collected the item. 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.”

Trump denied authoring the document. His legal team alleged that the Journal and its reporters knowingly and recklessly published numerous false statements. They claimed these reports caused overwhelming financial and reputational harm to the president. The suit accused the defendants of manufacturing flaws in the investigative reporting.

Judge Gayles ruled that the plaintiff did not meet the legal standard for actual malice. The judge cited the Supreme Court’s 1964 decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which requires public figures to prove that a media outlet knowingly published false information or showed a reckless disregard for the truth. Gayles wrote that the amended complaint failed to plead actual malice. The judge noted that the allegations regarding malice were conclusory, vague, and sometimes inconsistent with the article.

This is the second time the court has rejected the claim. Judge Gayles first dismissed the suit in April, allowing Trump to file an amended complaint. The president submitted that revision in May. In the final ruling, the judge observed that the Journal’s story did not ignore Trump’s denial. The article informed readers that the president decried the letter as a fake and denied writing it.

The dismissal concludes this specific legal battle between the White House and the newspaper. It joins a wider pattern of litigation during the current administration. Trump is currently involved in disputes with the BBC, The Associated Press, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. Those outlets recently sought restored access after being banished from the White House in mid-September. The White House did not issue an immediate public reaction to the Saturday decision. Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.