Federal judge permanently dismisses Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over Epstein report

A federal judge has permanently dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over the newspaper’s reporting on a sexually suggestive birthday letter linked to Jeffrey Epstein.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed Trump’s amended complaint with prejudice on Saturday, preventing him from filing the case again in the same court, although the president can appeal the ruling.

Gayles ruled that Trump had again failed to plausibly establish “actual malice,” the demanding legal standard public figures must meet in U.S. defamation cases.

The standard requires evidence that a publisher knew the information was false or acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true.

“The Amended Complaint falls short of pleading actual malice,” Gayles wrote, describing several of Trump’s allegations as vague, conclusory or irrelevant to whether the Journal knew its reporting was purportedly false.

The judge said Trump’s amended lawsuit was “grasping at straws” in attempting to identify flaws in the newspaper’s investigation. He also noted that the Journal had sought comment before publication and included Trump’s denial in its report.

The lawsuit stemmed from a July 2025 Journal article reporting that a sexually suggestive letter and drawing bearing Trump’s name appeared in an album assembled for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.

Trump has repeatedly denied writing or signing the letter and called the Journal’s reporting false and defamatory.

Gayles first dismissed the lawsuit in April but allowed Trump to amend and refile his complaint. Trump returned to court in May with a revised version seeking at least $10 billion in damages.

Trump’s legal team said after Saturday’s ruling that the president would continue pursuing the case, and an appeal is expected.