Ghislaine Maxwell reportedly collected Epstein birthday letter
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles said Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch tried to “manufacture” flaws in the paper’s investigative reporting on a letter bearing Trump’s name. Writing in Miami on Saturday, the judge said Trump was “grasping at straws” and ruled that the amended complaint “falls short of pleading actual malice.” Gayles dismissed the suit with prejudice, a ruling that means the case cannot be refiled again and the dismissal is permanent.
The judge wrote: “Indeed, the allegations regarding malice are 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.” Gayles also said several other allegations in the lawsuit did not have merit.
The case concerned a Wall Street Journal story published last year that described a sexually suggestive letter, reported on Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, and drew that the paper said bore Trump’s name and was included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. The letter was reportedly collected by Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a birthday album for Epstein years before he was first arrested in 2006 and before the two men subsequently fell out.
According to the newspaper, the letter bearing Trump’s name includes text framed by the outline of what appears to be a hand-drawn naked woman and ends with, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump denied writing it and called the story “false, malicious, and defamatory.”
Gayles also noted that the Journal’s story did not ignore or minimize Trump’s denial. “Rather, it informed readers that President Trump decried the Letter as a fake and denied writing it,” he wrote.
Trump’s lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, accused the paper and its reporters of having “knowingly and recklessly” published “numerous false, defamatory, and disparaging statements,” which, it alleged, caused “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” to the president.
The lawsuit was dismissed once before Saturday. Gayles previously dismissed the suit in April, saying Trump had failed to make the argument that the article was published with the intent to be malicious, but gave the president a chance to file an amended complaint, which he did in May.
Saturday’s ruling cited the Supreme Court’s landmark 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. The decision made it harder for public figures to win libel lawsuits because it requires proof that a media outlet knowingly published something false or showed reckless disregard for the truth.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The Journal case comes amid Trump’s disputes with news organizations during his second term. In addition to The Wall Street Journal, he is embroiled in lawsuits involving the BBC, The Associated Press and — most recently — CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which are suing him for restored access after he banished them from the White House in mid-September. Trump has denounced media outlets that write things to which he objects, frequently calls them “fake news” and insults their journalists.
The White House did not immediately react publicly to Saturday’s dismissal or respond to an Associated Press request for comment.