A US court dismissed Donald Trump’s defamation suit against the Wall Street Journal, ruling he failed to prove “actual malice” in a report about a letter to Jeffrey Epstein.
WASHINGTON: A US district court in Florida has dismissed a USD 10 billion defamation lawsuit filed by former president Donald Trump against the Wall Street Journal.
Judge Darrin P Gayles ruled that Trump failed to plausibly demonstrate the newspaper acted with “actual malice” in its reporting. The complaint also came “nowhere close” to meeting key legal standards, the judge wrote.
The lawsuit centred on a report about a purported congratulatory letter sent to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. The Wall Street Journal reported the letter bore Trump’s name and contained sexually suggestive text with a sketch.
Trump has consistently denied authoring the letter. He filed the suit seeking massive damages against the newspaper and media mogul Rupert Murdoch following the report’s publication.
This is one of several high-profile legal actions Trump has pursued against media organisations. He has also filed a separate USD 10 billion lawsuit against the BBC.
That case, filed in Florida, relates to a dispute over the editing of a speech Trump gave on January 6, 2021. The BBC used the footage in its “Panorama” programme, which aired shortly before the 2024 US presidential election.
A hearing in the BBC case is scheduled for February 2027. Trump has previously taken legal action against other outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN.
