Court Dismisses Trump’s Second Suit Against WSJ

A federal judge dismissed President Trump's defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal for a second time on Saturday, using the court's power to end the case after finding that an amended complaint failed to establish actual malice. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the case with prejudice, saying Trump’s second attempt still didn’t plausibly allege that each defendant acted with actual malice.

The Court Draws the Line

The lawsuit began after The Wall Street Journal published an article about a letter Trump allegedly sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003. Trump denied writing the letter and claimed it was fake. The case put a president’s allegations of reputational and financial harm against a newspaper and its reporting; the court’s ruling turned on whether the complaint met the legal standard, not on the president’s insistence that the article was false.

A federal judge first dismissed the lawsuit in April, ruling that Trump had failed to establish “actual malice” in his complaint. Trump filed an amended complaint in May. His lawyers argued that the article caused “overwhelming” financial and reputational harm and contained “false, defamatory, and malicious statements.” The court still found the allegations insufficient.

Gayles wrote: “As President Trump has not plausibly alleged that each Defendant made defamatory statements with actual malice, the Amended Complaint must be dismissed.” The decision also cited the repeat attempt: “And because this is President Trump's second attempt to allege his claims, the Court finds that dismissal with prejudice is appropriate.” The legal apparatus weighed the amended pleading against the standard and rejected it again.

The Letter at the Center

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released the letter tied to the Journal’s report. It included the line “Happy Birthday, may every day be another wonderful secret,” inside a drawing resembling the silhouette of a woman. The letter’s existence and authorship remained contested in the complaint and in Trump’s denials.

Trump’s amended complaint said one of two surviving individuals who could substantiate whether he had submitted a birthday letter was Trump himself, who “vehemently denied the existence of the alleged letter.” It said the other person “has testified to a federal official that she had no knowledge of it.” The woman referenced was Epstein’s co-defendant, Ghislaine Maxwell.

The complaint accused defendants Safdar, Palazzolo, Dow Jones, and News Corp of either knowing those facts or deliberately avoiding investigation before publishing the article. Gayles said Trump’s focus on Maxwell was “entirely misplaced” and insufficient to plead actual malice. Those are the competing claims in the record; the judge’s ruling was that the amended complaint did not plausibly allege that each defendant made defamatory statements with actual malice.

A spokesman for Trump's legal team told The Hill that the president “will continue to press forward in his powerhouse lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all of the other defendants.” The statement added: “The President will continue to hold those who mislead the American People with Fake News and smears accountable for their actions.” The court has dismissed this case twice; the spokesman says the legal fight will continue.