A federal judge has ended, for good, President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against media figure Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal. The claim was worth $10bn. Judge Darrin Gayles issued the decision on Saturday in Miami, concluding that Trump had not met the “actual malice” standard that defamation cases demand.
Under US law, a plaintiff must show that the publisher released a false statement either knowing it was untrue or with “reckless disregard” for whether it was accurate. Gayles found that Trump’s filing did not establish either point. He wrote that the president was “grasping at straws” in the case against the newspaper.
Judge says malice allegations were weak and irrelevant
In his written ruling, Gayles said the amended complaint “falls short of pleading actual malice”. He described the malice allegations as “conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the Article and often irrelevant” to whether the defendants knew or should have known the statements were false.
The judge went further, suggesting that Trump’s legal team had tried to find faults in the reporting after the fact. He said the lawyers had attempted “to manufacture flaws with the investigation” published by the newspaper.
Birthday letter report that triggered the dispute
The case grew out of coverage linking Trump to Jeffrey Epstein, a financier who has since died and who was a convicted sex offender. On July 17, 2025, the Wall Street Journal published an exclusive describing a sexually suggestive birthday note that was reportedly given to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. The note was part of a book of congratulatory letters that was reportedly collected by Ghislaine Maxwell, a former socialite who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme.
The note attributed to Trump contains typed text inside a hand-drawn outline of a curvy woman, with a signature placed where her pelvic region might be. Trump strongly denied responsibility for the text, the signature and the drawing. A copy of the letter was later released by the House Oversight Committee.
The report arrived as Trump’s second administration faced sharp criticism over whether it had held back documents on Epstein’s alleged sex crimes, despite earlier pledges of openness. Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 of soliciting a minor for sex and served 13 months in jail. He was later charged with federal sex trafficking offences in 2019 but was found dead in his New York City jail cell before trial. His death was later ruled a suicide.
Refiled complaint and the final ruling in Miami
Trump’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in Miami on July 18, 2025. It accused the paper and its reporters of having “knowingly and recklessly” published “numerous false, defamatory, and disparaging statements”. According to the complaint, the reporting caused “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” to the president. Two journalists connected to the article were also named as defendants.
In April, Gayles dismissed the case after ruling that Trump had not shown the reporting was driven by actual malice. That decision allowed Trump to refile, and he did so in May. The new version argued that the newspaper had been reckless by failing to show how its reporters had received and verified the letter.
Saturday’s ruling closes the matter. Gayles dismissed the case “with prejudice”, a step that effectively bars any future lawsuit on the same issue. Trump also has other defamation cases pending against different news organisations, including the and The New York Times.
