Miami, Florida: Judge Dismisses Trump's $10 Billion Wall Street Journal Lawsuit With Prejudice

A federal judge in Miami on Saturday dismissed President Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal for a second time, and this time closed the case for good. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the suit with prejudice, which means the president cannot file it again in that court.

What the judge found

Gayles ruled that Trump had not established a viable claim that he was defamed by the Journal's 2025 article about a birthday letter sent to Jeffrey Epstein. In a written order, the judge said Trump's allegations "are conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article, and often irrelevant" to his argument that the Journal published the report with actual malice. Actual malice is the standard a public figure must meet in a defamation case: he must show that a news organization deliberately published a false story or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

"The Court agrees that President Trump's defamation claims lack merit," wrote Gayles, who was appointed by President Barack Obama. Gayles had dismissed an earlier version of the lawsuit in April but gave Trump until April 27 to file a corrected version. The refiled case has now met the same end, without another chance to amend it.

The article at the center of the case

The Journal reported in 2025 that a book given to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003 included a letter with typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman. The letter was signed "Donald." The story ran under the headline "Jeffrey Epstein's Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump." The article included comments from Trump, who called the letter "a fake thing" and threatened legal action before the story was published.

Trump sued a day later. The defendants were Dow Jones, the Journal's publisher; its parent company News Corp; News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson; Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch; and two Journal reporters. The suit raised two defamation claims and sought at least $10 billion in damages on each. After publication, the House Oversight Committee received a copy of the birthday book from lawyers for Epstein's estate, and the book contained the letter.

The August hearing

At a hearing in August, Trump lawyer Alejandro Brito argued that the reporters had failed to carry out the investigation needed to determine whether Trump signed the letter, and that the headline amounted to a statement that Trump wrote and signed it. Lawyers for Dow Jones answered that the article never said Trump wrote the letter himself, and that the suit, like the first version, did not establish actual malice. Gayles sounded skeptical of Trump's reading during the hearing. "I don't see those words specifically used in the article," he said.

A Dow Jones spokesperson said the company was pleased with the decision. A spokesman for Trump's legal team said the president would appeal. "The President will continue to hold those who mislead the American People with Fake News and smears accountable for their actions," the spokesman said.

Epstein pleaded guilty in state court in 2008 to charges of solicitation of prostitution and procuring a minor for prostitution. He died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in a federal sex trafficking case, and the medical examiner ruled the death a suicide. Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein long before Epstein's first arrest in 2006.