Judge Ends Trump's $10 Billion Suit Against Wall Street Journal

A federal judge in Miami threw out Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch on Saturday.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. The judge wrote that the president's amended complaint "falls short of pleading actual malice" and that the allegations on that point were "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 ruling also said the lawsuit had tried to "manufacture" flaws in the paper's reporting.

The suit stemmed from a Journal story published last year about a letter and drawing the paper said carried Trump's name in an album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003. The text was framed by the outline of what appears to be a hand-drawn naked woman and ended with the line, "Happy Birthday, and may every day be another wonderful secret," according to the newspaper. The Journal reported that Ghislaine Maxwell collected the album for Epstein years before his 2006 arrest. Trump denied writing the letter and called the story "false, malicious, and defamatory."

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami accused the paper and its reporters of having "knowingly and recklessly" published statements that caused "overwhelming financial and reputational harm" to the president. Gayles had dismissed an earlier version of the suit in April but allowed an amended complaint, which was filed in May.

In Saturday's ruling, Gayles cited the Supreme Court's 1964 decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which requires public figures challenging news coverage to prove a publication knew material was false or showed reckless disregard for the truth. The judge also wrote that the Journal's article did not set aside Trump's denial: "Rather, it informed readers that President Trump decried the Letter as a fake and denied writing it."

Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Trump has pursued legal action against several news organizations during his second term. His disputes include matters involving the BBC, The Associated Press and, most recently, CNN, MS NOW and Politico. Those three outlets filed suit after they were barred from the White House in mid-September, seeking restored access.

The White House did not respond publicly to Saturday's ruling and did not immediately answer an Associated Press request for comment.