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A federal judge dismissed on Monday the $10 billion defamation lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against The Wall Street Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, regarding an article about the president's connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
The district judge in Florida, Darrin P. Gayles, determined that Trump failed to demonstrate that the article was published with malice, the legal standard required in the United States for a public figure to win a defamation case.
In his remarks, Gayles pointed out that the allegations made by Trump were conclusive and were refuted by the article itself, also highlighting that the newspaper's journalists consulted with the White House, the FBI, and the Department of Justice prior to publishing the report.
However, the judge granted Trump a two-week deadline—until April 27—to submit an amended complaint with more evidence of actual malice. A spokesperson for the president's legal team confirmed that they will take that opportunity and refile the complaint.
The controversy originated on July 17, 2025, when the WSJ published an article describing a letter signed by Trump that was included in a 238-page album gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003.
The letter included typed text with the phrase "Happy birthday and may each day be another wonderful secret", a sketch of a nude female figure, and the signature "Donald".
Trump categorically denied authorship on Truth Social: I have never drawn an image in my life. "I do not draw women. It is not my language. Those are not my words." He described the article as "false, malicious, and defamatory" and filed a lawsuit the following day.
The House of Representatives Oversight Committee released the complete album days after the WSJ publication, confirming international press access to the content.
In September 2025, Democratic congress members like Robert García published the alleged congratulation and compared handwriting samples, questioning Trump's denial.
The ruling represents a new setback for the administration's efforts to manage the fallout from the Epstein files, which have connected Trump to the financier through flight logs, photographs, and emails released since February 2025.
The ruling is also part of a broader pattern of legal actions by the president against media outlets. In September 2025, Trump filed a lawsuit against the New York Times for 15 billion dollars, a case that was dismissed later that month by another judge in Florida.
Just four days before this ruling, Melania Trump publicly appeared at the White House to deny any connection to Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, describing the allegations as "false" and attributed to "malicious individuals and entities with political motivations."
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