Trump plans to refile $10B defamation suit against Wall Street Journal
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President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over a story about his ties to late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was dismissed by a federal judge on Monday.
Trump filed the lawsuit last year after the Wall Street Journal published a July article alleging that Trump had signed an obscene letter included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. The letter was later made public by Congress and records from Epstein’s estate were subpoenaed.
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Florida wrote in the order that Trump did not assert that the article was published with malicious intent but gave the president a chance to file an amended complaint.
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President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal was dismissed Monday. (Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)
Trump will reopen the case, according to his legal team.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told Fox News Digital: “President Trump will follow Judge Gayles’ decision and guidance to reopen this strong case against the Wall Street Journal and all other Defendants. The President will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in fake news to mislead the American people.”
Trump denied writing the letter and creating the drawing, and called The Wall Street Journal’s reporting on it “inaccurate, malicious and defamatory.” The letter, bearing Trump’s name and reportedly signed, includes text framed by a hand-drawn sketch of a curvaceous woman.
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Jeffrey Epstein, now deceased, was seen in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 8, 2004. (Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images)
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “Trump did not draw or sign this picture.”
“Whether the author of the letter was President Trump or a friend of Epstein are questions of fact that cannot be determined at this stage of the case,” Judge Gayles wrote.
A spokesman for Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has been attacking the media in the courts in recent years, filing lawsuits against various outlets, including ABC, CBS, The New York Times and the BBC.
ABC agreed to pay $15 million in 2024 as a charitable contribution to a future presidential museum or foundation to resolve Trump’s libel lawsuit. The lawsuit was launched after host George Stephanopoulos repeatedly said on air that Trump had previously been blamed for rape rather than sexual abuse. He also paid $1 million in legal fees.
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Trump also filed an “election interference” lawsuit against CBS over then-Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 “60 Minutes” interview, saying its editing decisions amounted to deceiving the public. Ahead of its planned $8 billion merger with Skydance Media, CBS parent Paramount settled the lawsuit in July for an amount that could exceed $30 million.
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Joseph A. Wulfsohn of Fox News Digital and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
