Federal judge permanently dismisses Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal

The permanent closure of the $10 billion legal action ends a major high-profile media lawsuit without financial recovery or a retraction, reinforcing the strict First Amendment legal standards required for public figures to win libel claims.

• •U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles permanently dismissed Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch on Saturday.
• •The lawsuit was dismissed 'with prejudice,' meaning it is a permanent dismissal and cannot be refiled.
• •The judge ruled that Trump failed to prove the defendants made defamatory statements with 'actual malice' as required by law for public figures.
• •The underlying lawsuit centered on a Wall Street Journal report about a 2003 birthday album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein containing a letter bearing Trump’s name.
• •Trump denied writing the letter, calling the newspaper story false, malicious, and defamatory.
• •Judge Gayles had previously dismissed the initial complaint in April without prejudice, giving Trump an opportunity to file an amended complaint in May.
• •The ruling cited the 1964 Supreme Court precedent New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which sets a high legal bar for public figures in libel cases.
• •The judge noted that the Journal's reporting explicitly included Trump's denial and did not ignore or minimize it.
• •The dismissal occurs amid a broader context of adversarial relations and separate lawsuits between the administration and various media organizations.