Richest Men Sue, Judge Says Journalists Can Keep Working

A federal judge in Miami on Saturday dismissed with prejudice President Donald Trump's amended defamation lawsuit against media baron Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal. The suit sought billions over a story about a purported 50th birthday letter bearing Trump's name that was sent to Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles wasn't gentle. "As with his first attempt, he has failed. Grasping at straws, the Amended Complaint attempts to manufacture flaws with the investigation," he wrote in a 20-page ruling.

Who Has the Power

A sitting president, backed by his own legal team and the machinery of the White House, took a newspaper, its parent companies, a 95-year-old media mogul and two reporters to court. The Daily Beast reports Forbes puts the Murdoch family's net worth at $25 billion. The suit's price tag depends on who's counting: AP describes it as a $10 billion suit, CNN describes the original as $20 billion, and CNBC and the Daily Beast say $10 billion. Whichever figure you pick, it's a sum no ordinary person will ever see, being fought over by two of the most powerful men in the country.

Trump announced his intentions on Truth Social before filing, writing that he had personally warned Murdoch in advance. "The Press has to learn to be truthful, and not rely on sources that probably don't even exist," he wrote. Legal analysts who spoke with CNN said they couldn't recall another instance of a sitting president suing a news outlet over a story.

What They're Calling "Order"

The legal question turned on "actual malice," the standard from the Supreme Court's 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. Public figures must show a media outlet knowingly published something false or showed reckless disregard for the truth. Gayles found Trump's allegations "conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the Article, and often irrelevant." He called the Journal's work a "thoughtful and detailed investigation."

The most revealing part of the ruling is what the judge refused to accept. Trump's team argued the paper should have held the story once the president and his representatives denied the letter was authentic. Gayles rejected that flatly. "Were that the law, any time a public figure or his team denies an accusation, journalists would be immediately blocked from publishing negative or contradictory press," he wrote. Accepting it would let public figures block unfavorable reporting. The judge also noted the story didn't bury the denial: it "informed readers that President Trump decried the Letter as a fake and denied writing it." Gayles did not determine whether Trump actually authored the letter.

The Journal's piece, published July 17, 2025, reported that the letter appeared in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday, collected by Ghislaine Maxwell, who two decades later was convicted of procuring underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Trump insisted, "This is not me. This is a fake thing." He added: "I never wrote a picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of women."

Who Gets Crushed

The dismissal doesn't end the pattern. It's one entry in a long list. Trump filed a $15 billion defamation case against The New York Times; the judge dismissed the original complaint, let him refile, deferred a decision in July and ordered another revision, which arrived in August. He sued the BBC for $10 billion over its editing of his January 6, 2021 speech, and another Miami federal judge on Oct. 22 ordered him to sit for a deposition by Dec. 11. A judge dismissed his suit against Iowa pollster J. Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register with prejudice in September. And CNN, MS NOW and Politico are now suing for restored access after being banished from the White House in mid-September.

Legal experts deem these suits frivolous but warn that the publicity and the threat of protracted litigation can pressure news outlets and chill aggressive reporting. A giant like Dow Jones can absorb the legal bills. A local paper, a freelancer, a small independent outlet can't. The point of a suit like this isn't always winning. Sometimes the process is the punishment.

The Alternative

The Journal's lawyers said the suit "does not include a single plausible allegation." A Dow Jones spokesperson said: "We're pleased with the court's decision." A spokesman for Trump's legal team called it a "powerhouse lawsuit" and said the president will continue to hold "those who mislead the American People with Fake News and smears accountable." He confirmed to CNBC that Trump plans to appeal.

So the powerful will keep suing and the courts will keep sorting out which billionaire's feelings count. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, and the people who knew him and moved in his circle are still fighting over how much the public gets to see. Reporting didn't survive this round because the system protects it. It survived because one judge applied one standard on one Saturday.