'Grasping at straws': Judge dismisses Trump suit against Wall Street Journal over Epstein letter

MIAMI — Saying the president was "grasping at straws," a federal judge on Saturday threw out Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over a story reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami dismissed the suit with prejudice, ruling that the president did not prove the defendants made defamatory statements with actual malice as required by law. The ruling said the lawsuit had attempted to "manufacture" flaws in the Journal's investigative reporting.

When a case is thrown out "with prejudice," it cannot be refiled again and the dismissal is permanent and incontrovertible.

The dismissal is a blow to Trump and his administration, which have both pursued adversarial relationships with news organizations during his second term. In addition to the Journal, he is embroiled in lawsuits involving the BBC, the Associated Press and — most recently — CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which are suing him for restored access after he banished them from the White House in mid-September.

Trump has denounced media outlets that write things to which he objects and frequently calls them "fake news" and insults their journalists.

Trump called the reporting 'malicious'

The lawsuit against the Journal was over a story it published last year describing a sexually suggestive letter and drawing that the paper said bore Trump's name and was included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday.

The letter was reportedly collected by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a birthday album for Epstein years before he was first arrested in 2006 and subsequently had a falling-out with Trump.

The letter bearing Trump's name includes text framed by the outline of what appears to be a hand-drawn naked woman and ends with, "Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret," according to the newspaper.

Trump denied writing it and called the story "false, malicious, and defamatory."

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, accused the paper and its reporters of having "knowingly and recklessly" published "numerous false, defamatory, and disparaging statements," which, it alleged, caused "overwhelming financial and reputational harm" to the president.

Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

The lawsuit was dismissed once, then refiled

Gayles previously dismissed the suit in April, saying Trump had failed to make the argument that the article was published with the intent to be malicious. But he gave the president a chance to file an amended complaint, which he did in May.

In Saturday's ruling, the judge cited the Supreme Court's landmark 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. That decision made it harder for public figures to win libel lawsuits because it requires proof that a media outlet knowingly published something false or showed a reckless disregard for the truth.

"The Amended Complaint falls short of pleading actual malice," Gayles wrote. "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."

The judge also noted that the Journal's story did not ignore or minimize Trump's denial, "Rather, it informed readers that President Trump decried the Letter as a fake and denied writing it."

Gayles also said several other allegations in the lawsuit did not have merit.