U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles of the Southern District of Florida dismissed President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal without prejudice.
Without prejudice means Trump can amend the lawsuit and revive it later.
Trump sued WSJ in July for $10 billion over an alleged birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump filed the lawsuit against Dow Jones, News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, Robert Thomson, and two Wall Street Journal reporters, Joseph Palazzolo and Khadeeja Safdar.
Trump claimed the letter is fake, that the WSJ published the story to defame him, and that the publication “knew or should have known that the allegedly defamatory statements were false.” From Trump’s lawsuit:
On the one hand, Defendants Safdar and Palazzolo falsely pass off as fact that President Trump, in 2003, wrote, drew, and signed this letter. And on the other hand, Defendants Safdar and Palazzolo failed to attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained. The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists. Defendants concocted this story to malign President Trump’s character and integrity and deceptively portray him in a false light.
Remember, public figures have a harder time with defamatory lawsuits because they must prove actual malice: “to plead actual malice, [President Trump] must allege facts sufficient to give rise to a reasonable inference that the false statement was made with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”
Gayles said Trump did not meet the standard:
To establish actual malice, “a plaintiff must show the defendant deliberately avoided investigating the veracity of the statement in order to evade learning the truth.” Reed, 2025 WL 1874638, at *3. The Complaint comes nowhere close to this standard. Quite the opposite. The Article explains that, before running the story, Defendants contacted President Trump, Justice Department officials, and the FBI for comment. President Trump responded with his denial, the Justice Department did not respond at all, and the FBI declined to comment. In short, the Complaint and Article confirm that Defendants attempted to investigate. The Article also states that the WSJ reviewed the Letter.
Since the lawsuit is Trump’s first attempt at the claims, Gayles dismissed it without prejudice.
Gayles dismissed the Defendants’ request for attorney fees and costs payments due to the dismissal without prejudice.
Trump’s legal team said he plans to “refile this powerhouse lawsuit.”
Dow Jones & Co. isn’t backing down: “We stand behind the reliability, rigor and accuracy of The Wall Street Journal’s reporting.”
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