Florida judge dismisses President Trump's $10 billion defamation suit against Wall Street Journal

A federal judge in Florida has thrown out President Donald Trump's revised $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal. The case stemmed from a 2023 article that reported Trump had sent a birthday card featuring a hand-drawn nude figure to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. Trump denied involvement and claimed the story was fabricated.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles said the amended complaint "fell far short of the high legal bar to show the paper had published the story with ‘actual malice’" and ordered dismissal with prejudice. > "As President Trump has not plausibly alleged that each Defendant made defamatory statements with actual malice, the Amended Complaint must be dismissed. And because this is President Trump’s second attempt to allege his claims, the Court finds that dismissal with prejudice is appropriate," the judge wrote.

The original suit, filed in July 2023, alleged that the Journal falsely portrayed Trump as having drawn the nude figure and signed his name on the card, causing financial and reputational harm. The newspaper argued that its reporting included Trump’s own denial and that the card had been released publicly by the House Oversight Committee after being obtained from Epstein’s estate. Attorneys for the Journal also noted that sending a bawdy birthday card is not inherently defamatory and that the article clarified the timeline of Trump’s association with Epstein.

The judge’s ruling leaves the case closed, reinforcing the high standard required to prove actual malice in defamation actions involving public figures.