For the second time, an Obama-appointed judge dismissed the president’s $10 billion bid to hold The Wall Street Journal accountable for alleged defamation.
Despite holding control of the House of Representatives during the second half of President Donald Trump’s first administration and the first half of President Joe Biden’s term, it took Trump’s return to the White House for Democrats to begin pushing for the release of files pertaining to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
On top of the leftist allegations attempting to link the president to the conductor of the “Lolita Express,” corporate media poured its own gasoline on the fire, including the Journal’s publication of a bawdy letter attributed to Trump that led to a defamation suit dismissed for a second time on Saturday.
In his 20-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Darrin Phillip Gayles of the Southern District of Florida contended that Trump failed to prove that Dow Jones & Company, News Corp., Rupert Murdoch, Robert Thomson, Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo “acted with malice when they published an article in the Wall Street Journal … linking him to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein … As with his first attempt, he has failed.”
JUST IN: A federal judge has thrown out President Trump’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over its story about the Jeffrey Epstein birthday letter.
https://t.co/Nm4spHqYeY https://t.co/kOn8A3D17Y
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) October 31, 2026
Gayles previously dismissed the complaint regarding the 2003 letter penned for Epstein’s 50th birthday that was allegedly signed by Trump, stating in April 2026 of the alleged malice, “The complaint comes nowhere close to this standard.”
“Quite the opposite. The article explains that, before running the story, defendants contacted President Trump, Justice Department officials, and the FBI for comment,” argued the jurist of the July 2025 publication of the letter. “President Trump responded with his denial, the Justice Department did not respond at all, and the FBI declined to comment. In short, the complaint and article confirm that defendants attempted to investigate.”
In the original report, the Journal described the letter gifted to Epstein by writing, “The letter bearing Trump’s name, which was reviewed by the Journal, is bawdy–like others in the album. It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a squiggly ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.”
Responding to the president’s appeal following the initial dismissal by Gayles, the Journal filed a new motion to dismiss in June that read in part, “In his latest attempt to plead actual malice, President Trump recycles allegations already rejected by this court, makes claims contradicted by the article itself, and again lumps the various defendants together rather than pleading actual malice as to each.”
“Because this first amended complaint falls woefully short of the President’s burden, his case should be dismissed again — this time with prejudice,” added the Journal’s filing.
To that end, Gayles sided with the defense on dismissal with prejudice, ruling against any future attempts to refile the defamation suit, contending Trump “failed both times to sufficiently allege any Defendant acted with actual malice.”
According to a statement from a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team provided to The Hill, the president remained undeterred by the judge’s ruling and intends to “continue to press forward in his powerhouse lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all of the other defendants.”
“The President will continue to hold those who mislead the American People with Fake News and smears accountable for their actions,” added the spokesperson.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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