A federal judge dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal on Monday. The lawsuit stemmed from an article published last July regarding Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday book, which included an alleged letter from Trump.
In his ruling issued on Monday, U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles determined that Trump did not provide sufficient evidence to support his claim that the Wall Street Journal had published false information knowingly in its article about the letter from Trump featured in Epstein’s birthday book from 2003.
The ruling stated, “Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that Defendants published the Article with actual malice, both Counts must be dismissed.” The case was dismissed without prejudice, allowing Trump the option to refile by April 27.
In legal documents, Trump’s attorneys contended that the article and its surrounding coverage constituted a “deliberate smear campaign aimed at damaging President Trump’s reputation” and subjected him to “public hatred and ridicule.”
Judge Gayles, in a comprehensive 17-page ruling, noted that Trump fell “nowhere close” to meeting the legal threshold required to demonstrate that the Wall Street Journal acted with malice when it reported on the letter related to Epstein’s birthday.
According to Ghislaine Maxwell, a former associate of Epstein, she informed Todd Blanche from the Justice Department last year that Epstein had asked her to gather contributions for the commemorative book. However, she could not confirm whether Trump, at that time a private individual, was among those who contributed.
Trump’s lawsuit claimed that the Journal “acted with serious doubts about the truth of their reporting” based on his assertion that the letter was fabricated. Nonetheless, Judge Gayles found that the journalists “attempted to investigate” the validity of the letter and were not reckless merely due to Trump’s denial of its authenticity.
The ruling emphasized that to prove actual malice, “a plaintiff must show the defendant deliberately avoided investigating the veracity of the statement in order to evade learning the truth.” Judge Gayles concluded that Trump’s complaint did not even approach this standard and, in fact, indicated the opposite.
The White House has consistently denied the legitimacy of the letter since its release by the House Oversight Committee in September.
Judge Gayles reached his decision without having to make factual determinations regarding the letter’s authenticity. He noted, “Because the Court finds that the Complaint fails to adequately allege actual malice, it declines to address these issues at this juncture. Moreover, whether President Trump was the author of the Letter or Epstein’s friend are questions of fact that cannot be determined at this stage of the litigation.”
Trump’s defamation lawsuit, filed in July, named the Wall Street Journal, its parent company Dow Jones, owner Rupert Murdoch, and the reporters involved in the story as defendants.
