Judge tosses President Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against Wall Street Journal
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U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation suit against Dow Jones & Company, finding it ran into the First Amendment’s strong protections for the press.
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against Dow Jones & Company, the parent of The Wall Street Journal, concluding that the case collided head-on with the First Amendment’s guarantees of press freedom. The lawsuit grew out of a 2023 Journal report that described a letter, allegedly written by Trump in 2003, which was said to have appeared in a birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein and included suggestive language along with a drawing of a woman's outline. Trump has denied writing or signing the letter.
In a 20-page opinion, Gayles said the newspaper’s reporting was "thoughtful and detailed" and found that the plaintiff did not show the defendants acted with "actual malice"—the demanding legal standard requiring proof that a false statement was published knowingly or with reckless disregard for the truth. He wrote that accepting a public figure’s denial as enough to shut down publication would weaken the constitutional protection for free speech.
The judge dismissed the case "with prejudice," which bars Trump from filing the claim again. The ruling follows an earlier dismissal of a separate $20 billion defamation suit brought by the President against the same media outlet.