Judge throws out 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, siding with the Wall Street Journal on First Amendment grounds.
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, ruling that the case was barred by the First Amendment’s protections for the press. The suit was based on a 2023 Journal report that featured a letter, allegedly written by Trump in 2003, said to have appeared in a birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein and containing suggestive language and a drawing of a woman's outline. Trump has denied authoring or signing the letter.
Gayles, in a 20-page opinion, described the newspaper’s investigation as "thoughtful and detailed" and said the plaintiff failed to prove that the defendants acted with "actual malice"—the strict legal standard requiring evidence that a false statement was published knowingly or with reckless disregard for the truth. He added that allowing a public figure’s denial alone to block publication would undermine the constitutional right to free speech.
The judge dismissed the case "with prejudice," preventing Trump from refiling the claim. The decision follows an earlier dismissal of a separate $20 billion defamation suit brought by the President against the same media outlet.