US judge dismisses Trump’s lawsuit against Wall Street Journal

A US federal judge has dismissed former President Donald Trump’s multibillion‑dollar defamation claim against the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami threw out the case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. The judge said Trump failed to show that the defendants acted with malice and described the suit as “grasping at straws” and an attempt to “manufacture” flaws in the newspaper’s reporting.

The lawsuit stemmed from a Wall Street Journal story published last year that detailed a sexually suggestive birthday letter allegedly bearing Trump’s name. The paper said the letter was part of a 2003 album compiled for financier Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday and was collected by Ghislaine Maxwell.

According to the article, the letter was framed by a hand‑drawn outline of a naked woman and concluded with the words, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Trump denied authoring the note and called the coverage “false, malicious and defamatory”.

In the complaint filed in federal court in Miami, Trump alleged that the Journal and its reporters knowingly and recklessly published false and defamatory statements that caused “overwhelming financial and reputational harm”. The judge’s ruling ends the case permanently.

Source: Irish Examiner. Photo: m a flores / Pexels.