'He has failed': Judge permanently throws out Trump's $10bn lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over Epstein birthday letter story

Judge Darrin P. Gayles dismissed Trump's $10 billion defamation suit against the Wall Street Journal with prejudice on Saturday, permanently barring the president from refiling the case. The ruling found Trump failed twice to establish "actual malice" — the legal threshold public figures must clear to win defamation claims. Gayles wrote that Trump's allegations were "conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article, and often irrelevant."

The suit targeted Rupert Murdoch, News Corp, Dow Jones and Journal reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo over a July 2025 story.

The WSJ reported a letter bearing Trump's signature appeared in a leather-bound birthday album Ghislaine Maxwell compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003.

Trump's legal team vowed to "press forward," insisting the president will hold those who "mislead the American People with Fake News" accountable.