President Donald Trump has already racked up a string of losses in court, and now a judge has just handed him another by dismissing his $10-billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal.
In fact, Reuters reports that Trump’s defamation suit against WSJ was dismissed for a second time — this time with prejudice, meaning he’s hit a legal brick wall and cannot bring the case before the court again.
An Epstein Birthday Bombshell
Trump’s suit came in response to a WSJ story last year that included a suggestive letter and drawing reportedly made by Trump for Jeffrey Epstein‘s 50th birthday, bearing what appears to be Trump’s distinctive signature.
The letter — which also bore a line drawing of a topless female figure — was part of a group of birthday greetings compiled into a book by Ghislaine Maxwell, and presented to Epstein when he celebrated that milestone birthday in 2003.
The message alleged to be from Trump read, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” WSJ reported.
Trump denied that he had written that message, and called the newspaper’s story “false, malicious, and defamatory.”
Trump launched the lawsuit shortly after, filed in federal court in Miami, accusing the newspaper and the reporters who worked on the story of having “knowingly and recklessly” published “numerous false, defamatory, and disparaging statements,” thus causing “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” to the president. Trump sought $10 billion in damages.
Case Dismissed
Per Reuters, U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami dismissed the suit with prejudice, ruling that the Trump’s attorneys did not prove the Journal’s story contained defamatory statements made with actual malice, as the law requires.
Judge Gayles had previously dismissed the suit back in April, in that dismissal ruling that Trump failed to prove the newspaper published the story with malicious intent. That ruling, however, opened the door for the president to file an amended complaint. He did, filing the second attempt in May.
In this latest ruling, the judge cited the Supreme Court’s 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which set a high bar for public figures to win a libel suit by demanding a plaintiff must prove a media outlet knew that a story it had published was false.
“The Amended Complaint falls short of pleading actual malice,” Gayles wrote in his decision. “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.”
In fact, Gayles’ ruling explained that the Journal’s story neither ignored nor minimized Trump’s denial that he’d written the birthday greeting to Epstein. “Rather, it informed readers that President Trump decried the Letter as a fake and denied writing it,” Gayles noted, while also stating that all the other allegations laid out in the suit had no merit.
Judge Tosses Trump’s $10-Billion Wall Street Journal Lawsuit Over Lewd Jeffrey Epstein Birthday Drawing