Add StudioX as a preferred source on GoogleA US federal judge has permanently dismissed President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against media mogul Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal, according to Al Jazeera.
On Saturday, District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that Trump had not met the standard of actual malice that defamation claims require. The case was dismissed “with prejudice”, which Al Jazeera says effectively blocks any future litigation on the matter.
What the judge said
Under US law, a plaintiff in this kind of case must show that a defamatory statement was published either knowing it was false or with reckless disregard for its accuracy.
Gayles wrote that the amended complaint fell short on this point. He described its allegations about malice as vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article and often irrelevant to whether the defendants knew or should have known the statements were false. He said Trump was “grasping at straws” in pursuing the $10-billion case.
The judge also suggested that Trump’s legal team had tried to manufacture flaws in the newspaper’s investigation.
The story behind the lawsuit
The suit grew out of a Wall Street Journal exclusive published on July 17, 2025. It described a sexually suggestive birthday note given to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003, as part of a book of congratulatory letters.
The letters were reportedly collected by Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme. The note attributed to Trump includes typed text inside a hand-drawn outline of what appears to be a woman, with a signature placed near the bottom of the figure. A copy was later released through the House Oversight Committee.
Trump has strongly denied responsibility for the text, the signature and the artwork. He called the newspaper’s coverage false, malicious and defamatory.
The article appeared while Trump’s second administration faced intense scrutiny over whether it had withheld documents about Epstein’s alleged sex crimes, despite promises of transparency. Critics had also questioned the nature of the relationship between Trump and Epstein. The two men appear to have socialized together, and Epstein was known to surround himself with powerful figures from politics, academia and business.
In 2025, Trump said he ended the relationship after Epstein “stole” female employees from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
Procedural history
Trump filed the lawsuit in federal court in Miami on July 18, 2025. It accused the newspaper and its reporters of knowingly and recklessly publishing false and defamatory statements, and claimed major financial and reputational harm. Two journalists linked to the article were named as defendants.
Gayles first dismissed the case in April, finding that Trump had not shown actual malice. That ruling allowed Trump to refile, which he did in May. The updated complaint argued that the Journal was reckless in not showing how its reporters obtained and verified the letter. Saturday’s ruling rejected that case for good.
Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of soliciting a minor for sex and served 13 months in jail. In 2019 he faced federal sex-trafficking charges but was found dead in his New York City jail cell before trial. His death was ruled a suicide. Legal advocates estimate his victims number in the hundreds.
Trump has other defamation cases under way against media outlets, including the BBC and The New York Times, Al Jazeera notes.
Source: Al Jazeera
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