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

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami threw out Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch on Saturday. The dismissal was with prejudice, meaning the case is now closed permanently and cannot be refiled.

The suit targeted a story published last year about a sexually suggestive letter and drawing that the newspaper said bore Trump’s name. The item was part of a 2003 album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday. Ghislaine Maxwell, who was later disgraced, reportedly collected the letter. The text was framed by an outline of a hand-drawn naked woman and ended with the line, “Happy Birthday, and may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Trump denied writing the letter and called the reporting “false, malicious, and defamatory.” His lawyers argued the paper and its reporters “knowingly and recklessly” published false statements that caused “overwhelming financial and reputational harm.”

Judge Gayles said the amended complaint failed to meet the legal standard for actual malice. Under the Supreme Court’s 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, public figures must prove that a media outlet knowingly published falsehoods or showed reckless disregard for the truth.

“The Amended Complaint falls short of pleading actual malice,” Gayles wrote. He described the allegations regarding malice as “conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the Article, and often irrelevant to whether Defendants knew or should have known that the statements in the Article were purportedly false.” The judge also noted that the story informed readers that Trump decried the letter as a fake and denied writing it.

This is the second time the judge has dismissed the case. He first tossed the suit in April for a similar lack of proof but allowed Trump to file an amended complaint in May. The new ruling describes the earlier attempt as “grasping at straws” and says the lawsuit tried to “manufacture” flaws in the investigative reporting.

The loss is part of a wider conflict between the administration and news organizations. Trump is currently embroiled in lawsuits involving the BBC, The Associated Press, CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. Those outlets are suing him for restored access after he banished them from the White House in mid-September. Trump has frequently called such outlets “fake news” and insulted their journalists. Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.