A federal judge in Florida has dismissed President Donald Trump’s amended $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over its reporting on a birthday card he allegedly contributed to a book for Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles concluded that the revised complaint failed to overcome the same legal obstacle as Trump’s original filing.
Gayles found that Trump had not plausibly alleged that each defendant acted with actual malice, the standard requiring knowledge that a statement was false or reckless disregard for its truth. Because Trump had already made two attempts to state his claims, the judge dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice.
Trump initially sued last July after the Journal reported on a book Ghislaine Maxwell assembled for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. Trump and Epstein were friends around that period. The book appeared to contain a card bearing Trump’s first name beneath a drawing outlining a naked woman, with the signature positioned in the pubic area. A typed message presented an imaginary exchange with Epstein, who was later charged with sex trafficking.
Trump denied creating or contributing the card. His lawsuit accused the Journal of inventing it and asserted that no such note existed. Epstein’s estate subsequently released a copy matching the newspaper’s account, and the House Oversight Committee publicly released the card after obtaining it from the estate. Trump and the White House continue to say the document is fake.
The complaint alleged that the Journal falsely attributed the drawing and signature to Trump, causing financial and reputational damage. It also argued that the newspaper’s decision not to include an image in its initial report indicated that no authentic document existed. Trump further contended that his denial should have alerted the Journal that the story was false.
Another criticism concerned the absence of an interview with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence on sex trafficking charges. The Journal’s report said its reporters had requested an interview by letter and included a response from her lawyer. In an interview last year with then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Maxwell confirmed putting together the birthday book but said she did not remember whether Trump had contributed.
Seeking dismissal, the Journal’s lawyers argued that the amended complaint still failed to establish actual malice. They said the article demonstrated that reporters had investigated the matter and had informed readers of Trump’s denial and his assertion that the card was fabricated.
The newspaper’s lawyers also disputed that the alleged birthday message was defamatory. They noted that the article placed the book’s creation before Epstein’s first arrest and said Trump’s friendship with him ended years before Epstein faced sex crime charges. The card’s public release, they argued, showed that the reporting was substantially true.
The White House has maintained that the signature differs from Trump’s distinctive full signature and is not his. Democrats compiled documents on which Trump used only his first name, with signatures that appear very similar to the one on the disputed card.
