Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein
A federal judge in the United States on Saturday dismissed president Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal for the second time this year.
The court ruled that Trump had failed to establish that the newspaper acted with “actual malice” in its reporting on an alleged birthday letter bearing his name and linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The material was reportedly included in an album compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. In his ruling, Gayles cited the US Supreme Court’s 1964 judgment in New York Times Co. v.
Describing the president’s arguments as “grasping at straws”, the judge said the amended complaint failed to meet the legal threshold for establishing defamation. This is the second time Gayles has dismissed Trump’s lawsuit this year, according to the Associated Press (AP). The lawsuit arose from a Wall Street Journal report published last year about a sexually suggestive letter and drawing that the newspaper said bore Trump’s name. His lawsuit accused Dow Jones, the newspaper’s parent company, Rupert Murdoch and other defendants of having “knowingly and recklessly” published “numerous false, defamatory, and disparaging statements”. It also alleged “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” and sought $10 billion in damages. “Rather, it informed readers that President Trump decried the Letter as a fake and denied writing it,” the judge wrote.
US district Judge Darrin P Gayles, sitting in Miami, dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning Trump cannot refile the same case. The judge first threw out the case in April, ruling that Trump had failed to sufficiently argue that the newspaper published the report with actual malice. However, Gayles allowed the president to file an amended complaint, which was submitted in May. The revised lawsuit has now also been dismissed. Sullivan, which requires public figures to establish that a publication knowingly made false statements or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.