Florida Federal District Judge Darren Giles has dismissed Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and its publisher, media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
The lawsuit was brought over an article that described a postcard Trump sent to financier Jeffrey Epstein. The judge ruled that Trump failed to prove the defamatory nature of the publication.
According to the court, to prove defamation, Trump had to show “actual malice” — that is, that the journalists intentionally spread false information or acted with “flagrant disregard for the truth,” but this was not proven.
The judge allowed Trump to file an amended lawsuit and gave him until April 27 to do so. A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the president “will refile this aggressive lawsuit.” Trump himself also wrote that the “strong case” against The Wall Street Journal and other defendants should be remade a promiseWhich will be submitted by April 27.
Trump filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal in the summer of 2025 after it published it conditionWhich said that in 2003, Trump wished Jeffrey Epstein a happy birthday with a card bearing a “lewd” drawing of a naked woman and his signature. Trump denied any involvement in the letter and drawing. He called the article “false,” the Wall Street Journal a “useless” and “disgraceful” newspaper, and the upcoming trial “historic.”
Financier Jeffrey Epstein has been charged with human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. According to investigators, the businessman received sexual services from underage girls and “lent” them to influential people. He committed suicide in a New York prison cell.