Judge Dismisses Trump’s Lawsuit Against Wsj Over Epstein Birthday Letter

A federal judge on Monday tossed President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for reporting on a racy letter he purportedly wrote to commemorate Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles concluded that Trump came “nowhere close” to asserting that the newspaper’s actions revealing the existence and contents of the note amounted to the “actual malice” needed for Trump to prevail in a defamation case.

“Quite the opposite,” Gayles, a Florida-based Obama appointee, wrote in the 17-page decision.

Gayles emphasized the paper’s extensive work to confirm the authenticity of the letter, despite Trump’s claim it was a fake, and noted that the article included the president’s objection and revealed attempts to contact the FBI and Justice Department for comment.

“President Trump’s conclusory allegation that Defendants had contradictory evidence and failed to investigate is rebutted by the Article and is insufficient to establish actual malice,” the judge wrote. The actual malice standard requires Trump to prove that the Journal either knew the article was false at the time it was published or acted in reckless disregard of indications that it was likely false.

The letter was later released in a batch of files provided by the late Epstein’s estate to congressional investigators probing the disgraced financier’s sex trafficking operation. It featured the sketched outline of a naked woman and included a birthday wish ending with: “may every day be another wonderful secret.”

Trump has continued to deny that he authored the note, which was part of a book compiled by Epstein associate and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

Trump’s lawsuit, which names as defendants the Journal’s parent company Dow Jones along with former News Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch, current CEO Robert Thomson and reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo, doesn’t seem to have poisoned Trump’s relationship with Murdoch. Trump recorded a video tribute for Murdoch’s 95th birthday party last month, calling the media mogul “legendary” and praising his “courage, vision, and determination,” according to the News Corp.-owned New York Post.

Gayles gave Trump’s team the chance to salvage the lawsuit, providing his lawyers two weeks to file a revised complaint that alleges more evidence of “actual malice.”

A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement that the president’s lawyers will take the judge up on that offer.

“President Trump will follow Judge Gayles’s ruling and guidance to refile this powerhouse lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all of the other Defendants,” the statement said. “The President will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in Fake News to mislead the American People.”

A Dow Jones spokesperson said the parent company was "pleased with the judge's decision."

"We stand behind the reliability, rigor and accuracy of The Wall Street Journal's reporting," the spokesperson said.