October 31, 2026 1:15pm
A federal judge has again dismissed Donald Trump‘s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting on a letter sent to Jeffrey Epstein for his birthday in 2003.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles wrote in his opinion that Trump’s lawsuit “falls short of pleading actual malice. 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.”
Trump sued the Journal as welll as a series of other defendants, including Rupert Murdoch, after it published an article in 2025 reporting on the contents of a bawdy letter bearing Trump’s name and included in a “birthday book” compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump has claimed that he did not compose the letter.
The judge previously tossed out Trump’s case, but allowed it to be amended. His latest ruling, though, is with prejudice.
More to come.
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Source: Deadline · Ted Johnson
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