Judge in Miami Permanently Dismisses Trump's $10 Billion Wall Street Journal Lawsuit Over Epstein Birthday Letter

A federal judge in Miami on Saturday permanently dismissed President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, ruling that his second attempt to sue over the newspaper's reporting on a birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein failed the legal test public figures must meet. U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles dismissed the amended complaint with prejudice, which means the same claims cannot be refiled in that court, although an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit remains available.

The case, Trump v. Dow Jones & Co., grew out of a July 2025 Journal story reporting that a bawdy letter bearing Trump's name was included in a 2003 album Ghislaine Maxwell compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday. Trump denied writing or signing the letter and sued the Journal, its publisher Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch and two reporters the day the story appeared in print. A page matching the Journal's description was later released by the House Oversight Committee from Epstein's estate; the judge did not decide whether Trump wrote the letter.

Under New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, a public figure must show actual malice — that a publisher knew a statement was false or recklessly disregarded whether it was true. Gayles had dismissed Trump's original complaint in April for falling short on that standard and allowed him to try again. In Saturday's 20-page order he found the amended complaint still fell short, writing, as reported by the Associated Press, that its allegations were vague and conclusory, and he closed the case in the district court.