A federal judge in Miami on Saturday threw out President Donald Trump's multibillion-dollar defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, saying the president was "grasping at straws," according to the Associated Press.
The ruling
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. He ruled that Trump did not show that the defendants made defamatory statements with "actual malice," the legal standard for public figures, and said the suit had tried to "manufacture" flaws in the Journal's investigative reporting. He cited the Supreme Court's 1964 decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which requires proof that a news organization knowingly published something false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
"The Amended Complaint falls short of pleading actual malice," Gayles wrote, calling the allegations "conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the Article, and often irrelevant." He also noted the Journal did not ignore Trump's denial: the story "informed readers that President Trump decried the Letter as a fake and denied writing it."
What the story said
The suit targeted a Journal article published last year describing a sexually suggestive letter and drawing that the paper said bore Trump's name and appeared in a 2003 birthday album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. The album was reportedly collected by Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump denied writing the letter and called the story "false, malicious, and defamatory." Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting federal sex trafficking charges.
A second try that failed
Gayles first dismissed the suit in April, finding Trump had not argued the article was published maliciously, but allowed an amended complaint, which Trump filed in May. Saturday's order rejected that version too and said several other claims lacked merit.
Wider fight with the press
AP noted the ruling is a setback for an administration that has had adversarial relations with news organizations. Trump is also involved in litigation involving the BBC and the Associated Press, and CNN, MS NOW and Politico are suing for restored White House access after he barred them in mid-September. (AP reported the suit sought $10 billion; other outlets have cited different figures.)
Sources: PBS NewsHour, Associated Press