MIAMI — A federal judge on Saturday permanently threw out President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over a story about a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein, NPR and The Associated Press reported.
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled, ruling that Trump did not show the defendants acted with actual malice. NPR reported that the judge said the president was “grasping at straws.”
“The Amended Complaint falls short of pleading actual malice,” Gayles wrote, calling the allegations “conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the Article, and often irrelevant.”
The Journal reported last year on a sexually suggestive letter and drawing bearing Trump’s name that it said was included in a 2003 album for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump denied writing it and called the story “false, malicious, and defamatory.”
Gayles first dismissed the suit in April but allowed Trump to file an amended complaint, which he did in May. The judge noted the Journal’s story reported Trump’s denial.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the AP reported.
Sources: NPR, Associated Press via KTAR News. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
