‘Grazing at straws’: Judge dismisses Trump’s lawsuit against Wall Street Journal over Epstein letter: NPR
President Donald Trump leaves the podium after speaking at a campaign rally at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 30, 2026.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
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Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Declaring the president was “grasping at straws,” a federal judge on Saturday dismissed Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over an article reporting his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami dismissed the suit with prejudice, ruling that the president had not proven that the defendants made the defamatory statements with actual malice, as required by law. The ruling says the lawsuit attempted to “manufacture” flaws in the Journal’s investigative reporting.
When a case is dismissed “with prejudice,” it cannot be refiled and the dismissal is permanent and indisputable.
The firing is a blow to Trump and his administration, both of which have had contentious relationships with news organizations during his second term. Besides the Journal, he is embroiled in lawsuits involving the BBC, the Associated Press and, more recently, CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which are suing him for restoring access after he banned them from the White House in mid-September.
Trump has denounced media outlets that write things he opposes and frequently calls them “fake news” and insults their journalists.
The White House did not immediately respond publicly to Saturday’s firing or respond to a request for comment from the AP.
Trump called the report “malicious”
The lawsuit against the Journal related to an article published last year describing a letter and drawing of a sexual nature that the newspaper said bore Trump’s name and was included in a 2003 scrapbook compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday.
The letter was allegedly collected by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a birthday album for Epstein years before his first arrest in 2006 and his falling out with Trump.
The letter bearing Trump’s name includes text framed by the outline of what appears to be a hand-drawn nude woman and ends with “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret,” according to the newspaper.
Trump denied writing it and called the story “false, malicious and defamatory.”
The complaint, filed in federal court in Miami, accused the newspaper and its reporters of “knowingly and recklessly” publishing “numerous false, defamatory and disparaging statements,” which it said caused “financial harm and considerable reputational harm” to the president.
Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The lawsuit was dismissed once, then filed again
Gayles previously dismissed the suit in April, saying Trump failed to argue that the article was published with malicious intent. But he gave the president the opportunity to file an amended complaint, which he did in May.
In Saturday’s ruling, the judge cited the Supreme Court’s landmark 1964 decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. The ruling has made it more difficult for public figures to win defamation cases because it requires proof that a media outlet knowingly published something false or showed reckless disregard for the truth.
“The amended complaint fails to plead actual malice,” Gayles wrote. “Indeed, the allegations regarding malice are conclusive, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article, and often irrelevant to whether defendants knew or should have known that the statements in the article were allegedly false.”
The judge also noted that the Journal article did not ignore or downplay Trump’s denial: “Rather, it informed readers that President Trump had called the letter false and denied writing it.” »
Gayles also said several other allegations in the lawsuit were unsubstantiated.
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