Judge Dismisses Trump’s Defamation Lawsuit Against Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch
A federal judge in Miami dismissed President Donald Trump’s amended defamation lawsuit against media baron Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal on Saturday. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that Trump failed to plausibly allege actual malice in the newspaper’s reporting on a disputed 50th birthday letter written for Jeffrey Epstein, marking the permanent dismissal of the federal case.
The legal battle centers on a July 17, 2025, article published by The Wall Street Journal detailing a celebratory album given to Epstein. The article said the album included a letter bearing Trump’s signature. Trump adamantly denied authoring the letter, calling it a fake. He subsequently filed a multi-billion dollar defamation suit against Murdoch, News Corp, the publication, its CEO, and the journalists involved.
Judge Gayles Defends Investigative Reporting as First Amendment Protected
In his 20-page ruling, Judge Gayles stated that the amended complaint continued to grasp at straws while trying to manufacture flaws in the newspaper’s investigative reporting. The judge noted that the Journal carried out a thoughtful and detailed investigation before publication. Gayles rejected the argument that the media outlet should have suppressed the story simply because the president and his representatives denied its authenticity. Accepting that premise would allow public figures to effectively block unfavorable reporting, which runs afoul of First Amendment protections for a free press, according to the court’s analysis.
The dismissal comes with prejudice, barring Trump from refiling the exact same claims in federal court. That outcome contrasts sharply with the earlier trajectory of the litigation. When Gayles dismissed the initial complaint in April, he permitted the legal team to file an amended version to correct legal defects. The updated filing introduced new claims, including an assertion that Murdoch told Trump “I will handle it” during a phone conversation regarding the birthday letter. Those additions failed to satisfy the stringent actual malice standard required for public figures under United States Supreme Court precedent.
The latest piece published by the Wall Street Journal PROVES this entire “Birthday Card” story is false. As I have said all along, it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.President Trump’s legal team will continue to aggressively…
Trump Legal Team Plans to Appeal Court Decision
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team confirmed plans to appeal the decision. The president will continue to press forward in the lawsuit to hold those who mislead the American public accountable for their actions, according to the statement provided to cnbc.com. Meanwhile, Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of the Journal and a subsidiary of News Corp, issued a statement expressing satisfaction with the court’s decision.
CBS News noted that the multi-billion dollar action originally targeted a valuation of up to $20 billion in damages across various filings before being refined. The Miami federal court ruling adds to a mounting series of legal hurdles for the president regarding media coverage. On October 22, another federal judge in Miami ordered Trump to sit for a deposition by December 11 in a separate $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC. House lawmakers previously subpoenaed and obtained a redacted copy of the Epstein birthday album from the estate, though the judiciary did not formally determine the authenticity of the disputed signature in Saturday’s dismissal.