Washington. A federal judge on Monday dismissed the lawsuit because defamation of 10 billion dollars from the president donald trump against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch for a report about his links with Jeffrey Epstein.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles, in Floridawrote in the order that Trump failed to sustain the argument that the article was published with the intent to act with malice.
“Given that President Trump has not plausibly alleged that the defendants will publish the article with real maliceboth charges should be dismissed,” Gayles wrote.
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Photo: X @WSJ
Gayles, appointed by the former president Barack Obamagranted Trump the opportunity to amend his lawsuit and refile it by April 27.
A few hours after the ruling, Trump stated on social media that the decision “It is not a termination”, but rather a “suggestion to re-present” his “strong case”.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team reported that the demand will be presented again.
Trump filed the lawsuit in July, following up on a promise to sue the newspaper almost immediately after it brought renewed focus to his relationship with Epstein by publishing an article that described a letter with sexually suggestive phrases that, according to the newspaper, bore Trump’s signature and were included in an album for Epstein’s 50th birthday made in 2003.
The letter included a drawing handmade supposedly by the then real estate magnate of a naked woman and referred to a “secret” shared between the two.
The letter was later released by the Congresswhich had demanded the delivery of materials to Epstein’s representatives. Trump denied having written it and called the report “false, malicious and defamatory.”
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The letter apparently signed by Epstein in which he appears to reference Trump is fake, the FBI said. Photo: AFP
The lawyers of the newspaper and Murdoch had asked Gayles to determine that the article’s claims were true and therefore could not be defamatory, but the judge wrote that “whether President Trump was the author of the Letter or a friend of Epstein are factual issues that cannot be determined at this stage of the litigation,” Gayles wrote.
The ruling is yet another blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to manage the fallout from the disclosure of the Epstein files and to the president’s attempts to use the legal system to discourage news coverage he considers critical of him.
The White House has not responded to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Dow Joneswhich publishes the Journal, declared that the organization was “satisfied” with the judge’s decision and added: “We ratify the reliability, rigor and precision of the news coverage of the Wall Street Journal”.
