A federal judge in Miami has dismissed President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal for a second time, ruling that the Trump Wall Street Journal lawsuit dismissed on Saturday cannot be refiled in the trial court. US District Judge Darrin P. Gayles dismissed the case with prejudice, finding that the amended complaint still failed to show that the newspaper acted with actual malice when it reported on a birthday letter bearing Trump’s name in an album assembled for Jeffrey Epstein.
FAKTA
- What happened: Judge Darrin P. Gayles of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal’s publisher on Saturday, 31 October 2026.
- Why it matters: The dismissal was with prejudice, meaning the same claims cannot be brought again in the trial court, although an appeal remains possible.
- What was at stake: Trump had sought at least $10 billion in damages over the Journal’s July 2025 report about a letter in a 2003 birthday album for Epstein.
- Trump’s position: Trump denied writing or signing the letter and called it a fake; a spokesman for his legal team said he would appeal the ruling.
- The judge’s finding: The amended complaint’s allegations were, in the judge’s words, conclusory and vague and did not adequately allege actual malice.
Trump Wall Street Journal lawsuit dismissed: the judge’s reasoning
In his order, Judge Gayles wrote that Trump’s allegations “are conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article, and often irrelevant” to the argument that the Journal published its 2025 report with actual malice, the standard a public figure must meet in a defamation claim. “As with his first attempt, he has failed,” the judge wrote, according to reports of the ruling.
The judge also rejected the argument that the newspaper should have withheld the story after Trump denied writing the letter, writing that such a requirement would conflict with the First Amendment. He described the amended complaint as “grasping at straws” in its attempt to find flaws in the Journal’s investigation, and pointed to what Reuters described as the paper’s detailed investigation and its efforts to seek comment from Trump and other officials before publication.
President Donald Trump speaking at a press conference. The Miami court dismissed his defamation case against the Wall Street Journal for a second time.
How the case reached this point
The Journal reported in July 2025 that a book given to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003 included a letter with typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman and signed “Donald”. The article included Trump’s assertion that the letter was “a fake thing” and his threat to sue. Trump then sued Journal publisher Dow Jones, its parent company News Corp, News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson and chairman emeritus Rupert Murdoch, and two Journal reporters in federal court in Miami.
Judge Gayles had already dismissed an earlier version of the lawsuit in April 2026, ruling that the original complaint fell short on actual malice, but he allowed Trump to file an amended complaint. Saturday’s ruling closed that opportunity in the trial court. Epstein, a financier and sex offender, died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in a federal sex-trafficking case.
What happens next
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the president would appeal the ruling, the Wall Street Journal reported. An appeal would go to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, CNN reported.
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