Judge dismisses Trump’s lawsuit against Wall Street Journal and Murdoch | US news
A Florida judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed last summer by Donald Trump over a Wall Street Journal report that he sent a “bawdy” letter to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003, although the judge gave the US president two weeks to dismiss the case again.
Trump, who has a history of suing media companies inside and outside the White House, had argued that an obscene cartoon at the heart of the story was false. The trial was particularly notable because one of the defendants was Rupert Murdoch, one of Trump’s top media allies, whose News Corporation media empire owns the Journal.
Trump had called Murdoch personally to try to prevent the publication of the July 17, 2025 article, titled “Jeffrey Epstein’s friends sent him bawdy letters for an album for his 50th birthday. One was from Donald Trump.”
The Journal did not initially publish the image, although it was released by the House Oversight Committee in September after being provided by Epstein’s estate.
Journal representatives asked the judge to dismiss the suit, arguing that the article was accurate and did not meet the criteria for a defamation claim because the authors did not publish the article knowing it was false or believing it was likely that it was false.
Judge Darrin P Gayles, in his ruling on Monday, agreed that the complaint “fails to adequately allege actual malice”, the standard for defamation suits brought by well-known individuals.
The judge argued that there was significant evidence that the Journal was investigating whether the drawing was authentic, and that the fact that Trump claimed it was false did not mean that the Journal acted “with serious doubts” about the story.
“Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that defendants published the article with actual malice, both counts must be dismissed,” Gayles wrote.
Trump’s team will be able to file a new complaint until April 27 with additional evidence that the Journal published the claim knowing it was false or likely to be false. The judge also wrote in the motion that Trump’s team provided no evidence or allegations of specific damages.
“President Trump will follow Judge Gayles’ ruling and direction to refile this powerful lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all other defendants,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement. “The President will continue to hold accountable those who peddle fake news to mislead the American people. »
Trump added his own commentary on his Truth Social platform, reaffirming his legal team’s commitment to refiling the lawsuit. “Our powerful case against the Wall Street Journal and other defendants has been requested by the judge to be refiled,” he wrote. “This is not a termination, it is a suggestion of refiling, and we will, pursuant to the order, refile an updated lawsuit no later than April 27.”
A spokesperson for Dow Jones, the News Corp division behind the Journal, said: “We are pleased with the judge’s decision to dismiss this complaint. We support the reliability, thoroughness and accuracy of the Wall Street Journal’s reporting.”
Trump still has an active lawsuit against the BBC for editing a documentary, and his administration has been sued by several media companies over First Amendment issues.
