Dismissal with prejudice bars Trump from refiling claims over Epstein letter
A federal judge on Saturday dismissed for a second time President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, finding that the president had not established a viable claim that he was defamed by the newspaper’s article about a birthday letter sent to the financier Jeffrey Epstein.
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles, who is based in Miami, dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning Trump cannot file it again. Gayles had dismissed an earlier version of the lawsuit in April but had allowed Trump to refile.
“The Court agrees that President Trump’s defamation claims lack merit,” Gayles wrote. Gayles, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, said Trump’s allegations “are conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article, and often irrelevant” to the president’s argument that the Journal published the report with actual malice, the standard required for him to prove defamation claims.
The lawsuit stems from the Journal’s report last year that a book given to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003 included a letter with typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman. The letter was signed “Donald.” The story ran under the headline “Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump.”
The article included comments from Trump, including his assertion that the letter was “a fake thing” and his threat to file a lawsuit. Trump then sued the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones; Dow Jones’s parent company, News Corp; News Corp CEO Robert Thomson and Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch; and two Journal reporters in federal court. The suit brought two defamation claims and sought at least $10 billion in damages on each.
During a hearing in August, Trump lawyer Alejandro Brito argued that the reporters failed to conduct the investigation necessary to determine whether Trump signed the letter. Brito also argued that the headline amounted to a statement that Trump wrote and signed the letter.
Lawyers for the Journal’s publisher argued that the article did not actually say Trump wrote the letter himself. They told the judge that the refiled lawsuit, like the original, did not establish that the Journal acted with actual malice — a legal standard that requires public figures to show that a news organization deliberately published a false story or proceeded with a reckless disregard for the truth.
Gayles voiced skepticism during the hearing of Brito’s assertion that the article said Trump personally authored, drew and signed the letter. “I don’t see those words specifically used in the article,” the judge said.
After the Journal’s story published, members of the House Oversight Committee received a copy of the birthday book, provided by lawyers from Epstein’s estate, containing the letter.
Epstein pleaded guilty in state court in 2008 to charges of solicitation of prostitution and procuring a minor for prostitution. He died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in a federal sex-trafficking case, and the medical examiner ruled his death a suicide. Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein long before Epstein’s initial 2006 arrest.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Dow Jones and News Corp did not immediately respond to requests for comment.