Federal court rejects Trump’s Epstein letter defamation lawsuit
A federal judge has dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over its reporting on a purported birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein. US District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled in Miami on Saturday that Trump’s amended complaint failed to establish that the newspaper and other defendants acted with actual malice. He dismissed the…
A federal judge in Miami has dismissed former President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and its publisher, Dow Jones, and other defendants over a purported birthday letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. US District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that Trump's amended complaint did not meet the legal standard for a defamation claim brought by a public figure, requiring proof of actual malice.
The ruling stems from an article published in July 2025 that described a sexually suggestive letter allegedly found in an album assembled for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003. The letter purportedly bears Trump's signature, which he has denied authoring. The judge found that the newspaper had conducted a thorough investigation, seeking responses from Trump and others before publishing the account.
The court also noted that Trump's denial of authorship alone was not sufficient to establish the necessary state of mind for actual malice. Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal expressed satisfaction with the ruling and continued to stand by their reporting, which they described as accurate and fair.
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