A U.S. federal judge on Monday dismissed President Trump's defamation lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gales in Miami, Florida, ruled that Trump failed to make a valid legal claim that he had been defamed by a report. The report involved a letter signed by Trump and addressed to financier Epstein.
"Because President Trump failed to persuasively allege that the defendants acted with 'actual malice' in publishing the article, both counts must be dismissed," Gales, who was appointed by former President Obama, wrote. The judge said Trump could file a new amended complaint if he wished and gave him a deadline of April 27.
Representatives for Trump and the publisher of The Wall Street Journal did not respond to requests for comment.
The Wall Street Journal reported in July last year that a letter was included in a 50th birthday gift book given to Epstein in 2003. The printed text of the letter is framed by the silhouette of a naked woman. "Happy birthday - may every day be another wonderful secret," the letter read, signed "Donald."
The report cited comments from Trump, who denied writing the letter and threatened legal action.
A day later, Trump sued Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and its parent company, News Corp., in federal court for billions of dollars. The lawsuit also names News Corp.'s chairman emeritus Rupert Murdoch, its chief executive Robert Thomson and two Wall Street Journal reporters as defendants.
Trump argued that there was no such thing as an authentic letter or drawing and said the Journal was trying to discredit his character.
Lawyers for Dow Jones said the report was true and cited letters later released by the House Oversight Committee. The committee received a copy of a birthday letter from Epstein's estate.
They also argued that the letter's content was consistent with Trump's consistent public image and pointed out that the report included Trump's denials. "President Trump has also publicly admitted to engaging in 'locker room gossip' and made numerous vulgar public comments," the lawyers wrote.
Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein long before he was first arrested in 2006. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in a Florida court to soliciting prostitution of a minor. In 2019, federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex trafficking underage girls in Florida and New York. Epstein died in a Manhattan federal prison while awaiting trial.
The article comes as the Trump administration is being questioned over its failure to release more Epstein-related documents held by the Justice Department. In November, Congress passed the Epstein Dossier Transparency Act, which requires the attorney general to release unclassified documents related to Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days. Trump signed the bill, and millions of pages of documents, images and other archives have since been released.
The president has frequently filed lawsuits against media organizations over the years. In September, a federal judge dismissed Trump's $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, book publisher Penguin Random House and several journalists. The ruling characterized the president's legal complaint as a politicized statement that violated basic court requirements. Trump has since filed a new version of the complaint. The New York Times and co-defendants have said the lawsuit lacks legal merit and have again asked the court to dismiss it.
Trump also sued the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for defamation in December last year because the broadcaster edited a documentary that included a speech he gave before the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021. The BBC has asked for the case to be dismissed and a spokesman said the news organization would defend itself in court.