Miami Judge Dismisses Trump’s $10 Billion Suit Against Wall Street Journal
A federal judge in Miami has dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media owner Rupert Murdoch...
A federal judge in Miami has dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media owner Rupert Murdoch, ruling Trump had not plausibly shown the newspaper acted with actual malice. Trump’s legal team says it will appeal.
Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the amended case with prejudice, barring Trump from bringing the same claim again in the U.S. District Court. The ruling, issued Saturday, followed an earlier dismissal that gave Trump an opportunity to revise his lawsuit.
Dispute over a birthday letter
The case stemmed from a Journal article published in July 2025 about a letter included in a birthday album assembled for Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. The paper reported that the sexually suggestive message, which included a drawing outlining a woman’s body, bore Trump’s name and signature.
Trump has denied writing or signing the letter and called the article false and defamatory. He sued the Journal, its parent company Dow Jones and Murdoch, seeking billions of dollars in damages.
Gayles found the amended complaint still did not adequately allege that the defendants knowingly published false information or acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true. The actual-malice standard applies to defamation claims brought by public figures. The judge also said the lawsuit tried to identify defects in the reporting that had not been plausibly established.
The judge’s decision invokes a legal threshold that gives news organizations substantial protection when public figures sue over reporting. It does not establish whether Trump wrote the letter; the case concerned whether his complaint sufficiently alleged that the defendants published the story with actual malice.
Appeal is next
Trump’s team plans to take the ruling to a U.S. appeals court. Because Gayles dismissed the case with prejudice, the president cannot simply file the same claim again in the Miami federal court.
The article appeared as the Trump administration faced bipartisan criticism over its handling of Epstein-related documents. The appeal will now determine whether the dismissal stands or the dispute returns to court.
