A federal judge has dismissed US President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, finding that Trump failed to demonstrate that the newspaper knowingly published false information about his relationship with convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
US District Judge Darrin Gayles issued the ruling in Miami on Saturday, dismissing the amended complaint with prejudice, meaning Trump cannot refile the same lawsuit.
The judge concluded that Trump’s allegations of actual malice were “conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article, and often irrelevant” to whether the newspaper knew its reporting was false.
Gayles also rejected attempts by Trump’s legal team to challenge the newspaper’s investigation, saying the complaint appeared to manufacture flaws in its reporting.
The lawsuit was filed in July 2025 after the Journal published an investigation concerning a 2003 birthday album compiled for Epstein, which included a letter attributed to Trump.
Trump denied writing the letter, describing the report as false, defamatory, and damaging to his reputation.
He initially sought $10 billion in damages from the newspaper, Rupert Murdoch and two journalists involved in publishing the report.
The judge first dismissed the lawsuit in April 2026 but allowed Trump to submit an amended complaint, which was also rejected in Saturday’s ruling.
The case has drawn renewed attention to Trump’s past association with Epstein, with whom he socialized during the 1990s and early 2000s.
The two men were photographed together at social events, and Trump once described Epstein as a “terrific guy” in a 2002 interview.
Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor in Florida in 2008 and faced federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019 before dying in a New York jail, with his death ruled a suicide.
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