US President Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch.
Julia Demery Nikhinson Jonathan Ernst | reuters
A federal judge in Florida on Monday dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against media giant Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal, which claimed the newspaper defamed Trump with a story that said the president sent a “lewd” letter to notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on his 50th birthday.
But Trump will be given the chance to file a new amended lawsuit regarding the Journal’s letter, published in July 2024, Judge Darrin Giles said in his statement. Decision in US District Court in Miami.
Giles said he had to dismiss the civil complaint because Trump, who denied sending letters to his then-friend Epstein in 2003, had “not alleged that the defendants published the article with actual malice.”
According to legal precedent, plaintiffs who are public figures like Trump must show that the defendant had actual malice when he made the allegedly defamatory statements.
Giles said Trump’s complaint “falls short of confirming actual malice”, and also said the President “doesn’t come anywhere close” to the standard of showing that the newspaper intentionally avoided investigating the truth of the statements it published about the letter.
“The article reveals that, before running the story, the defendants contacted President Trump, Justice Department officials, and the FBI for comment,” the judge wrote. “President Trump responded with his denial, the Justice Department did not respond, and the FBI declined to comment. In short, the complaint and articles confirm that the defendants attempted to investigate.”
But the judge pointed to another precedent in giving Trump a second chance in the case, saying a plaintiff “must have the opportunity to amend his complaint” if a lawsuit was dismissed because his failure to plead facts “gives rise to a presumption of actual malice.”
The judge’s decision did not address the question of whether the statements the Journal made in the article were true, and whether they were defamatory.
Trump plans to re-file amended lawsuit over Epstein letters
“President Trump will follow Judge Giles’s decision and guidance to re-file this powerhouse lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and all other defendants,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement.
“The President will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in fake news to mislead the American people,” the spokesperson said.
The White House declined to comment, referring questions to Trump’s legal team.
CNBC requested comment from the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by Murdoch’s company. news corporation.
Lawyers for the defendants said in legal filings that Trump’s case should be dismissed because the article about the letter is true, the article is not defamatory, and because Trump had not shown that the newspaper acted with actual malice.
Outline of woman’s body shown in letter to Epstein
The Wall Street Journal published an article on July 17 stating that a letter signed by Trump was included in an album of letters that Epstein was giving for his 50th birthday. The article said Trump sent the letter at the request of Ghislaine Maxwell, a close friend of Epstein’s who was convicted two decades later of purchasing underage girls for Epstein to sexually exploit.
The Journal noted that the letter contained “several lines of typed text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to have been hand-drawn with a heavy marker.”
Journal reporters Khadija Safdar and Joe Palazzolo said in the article, “A pair of small arches depict the woman’s breasts, and the future president’s signature is a sloppy ‘Donald’ below her waist, mimicking pubic hair.”
“The letter concludes: ‘Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful mystery,'” he wrote.
Trump angrily denied writing the letter, saying, “This is not me. This is fake.”
The President said at the time, “I’ve never done any portraits in my life. I don’t do portraits of women.”
A day after the Journal published the article, Trump filed a lawsuit against the newspaper, the two journalists, Murdoch, News Corp., the company’s CEO Robert Thompson, and the Journal’s publisher, Dow Jones & Company.
On 8th September, Democrats in the House of Representatives released an imageThere appeared to be a letter written to Epstein, signed by Trump, that matched the description of the letter detailed in the Journal article. The letter was obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee when that panel issued a subpoena for Epstein’s estate.
At the time of the release, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said it was proven that Trump did not draw or sign the portrait.
Epstein killed himself in August 2019 while being held without bail in a Manhattan federal prison. He was arrested a few weeks ago on child sex trafficking charges.