U.S. Judge Dismisses Donald Trump's $10 Billion Defamation Lawsuit Against Wall Street Journal

A U.S. federal judge dismissed President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal on Monday, ruling that Trump failed to meet the legal standard required for public figures in defamation cases, but gave him until April 27, 2026, to file an amended complaint. Miami-based U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles wrote in his order that Trump came "nowhere close" to demonstrating that the Journal acted with actual malice in publishing the disputed article. The lawsuit stemmed from a July 17, 2025, Wall Street Journal article asserting that Trump's name appeared on a sexually suggestive birthday greeting included in a 2003 album compiled for convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. Trump denied writing the greeting, calling the story "fake" and seeking $10 billion in damages for what he described as harm to his reputation. The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning Trump retains the right to refile with a revised complaint.

Judge finds WSJ's inclusion of denial undercut malice claim Judge Gayles identified a specific reason why Trump's complaint fell short of the actual malice threshold: the Wall Street Journal had asked Trump for comment before publishing the article and included his denial of the greeting's authenticity in the original piece. According to the judge, this gave readers the opportunity to draw their own conclusions, which directly undermined Trump's argument that the newspaper acted with intent to harm. Gayles wrote that Trump's complaint "does not come close to meeting this standard — quite the opposite." The judge also noted that whether Trump was the author of the letter or was Epstein's friend were "questions of fact that cannot be determined at this stage of the litigation," declining to rule on the underlying truth of the article's claims. Lawyers for the newspaper and for Rupert Murdoch had asked Gayles to rule that the article's statements were true and therefore could not be defamatory, but the judge declined to go that far. The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and a spokesperson for Dow Jones, which publishes the Journal, also did not immediately respond.

Trump's lawyer vows to refile the "powerhouse" suit Trump's lawyer told CBS News that the president intends to refile the lawsuit, describing it as a "powerhouse" case, and said Trump would "continue to hold accountable those who traffic in Fake News to mislead the American People." The original lawsuit named two Wall Street Journal journalists, newspaper owner Rupert Murdoch, publisher Dow Jones, and the publishing house News Corp as defendants. The birthday greeting at the center of the dispute was described in the Journal's reporting as containing a drawing of a female body made with a marker, alongside a message reading "Happy Birthday — And may every day that follows be another wonderful mystery," with a note that both men shared certain things in common. The letter was subsequently released publicly after Congress subpoenaed records from Epstein's estate, and Democratic lawmakers published an image of the note on social media ahead of the broader document release. The Journal did not publish an image of the note at the time of its original article, but the details of its written description were reported to match the image later released by lawmakers. 10 (billion USD) — damages Trump sought from Wall Street Journal

Epstein's connections to powerful figures shadowed the case Jeffrey Epstein was a financier who moved among influential figures from politics, business, and the arts for decades before his arrest. In 2008, he received an 18-month sentence for sexual abuse as part of a controversial secret plea deal. He was arrested again in 2019 on charges of abusing underage girls and human trafficking for sexual exploitation, and was found dead in a prison cell that year, with authorities ruling his death a suicide. The release of documents related to Epstein's activities and associates became a politically charged process in the United States, with the Trump administration overseeing the release of so-called Epstein files. The lawsuit represented one front in a broader pattern of legal actions by Trump against media organizations whose coverage he has characterized as hostile. The dismissal, even if temporary, marks a setback in those efforts, as the judge's ruling made clear that the complaint as filed did not satisfy the foundational requirements of federal defamation law. Trump has until April 27, 2026, to submit an amended version of the complaint that more specifically addresses the actual malice standard. Whether a revised filing can overcome the evidentiary hurdles identified by Judge Gayles — particularly the Journal's pre-publication outreach to Trump and its inclusion of his denial — remains an open legal question. The case continues to draw attention to the ongoing political and legal fallout surrounding the Epstein files and Trump's documented past association with the late financier, an association that both Trump and former President Bill Clinton have faced questions about, though neither was charged with any illegal conduct in connection with Epstein's crimes.