Judge Dismisses Trump’s Suit Against The Wall Street Journal

The judge said President Trump had not “plausibly alleged” that The Journal published the article with actual malice.

Listen · 1:56 min

A federal judge dismissed President Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, saying that the complaint did not plausibly show actual malice.Credit...Juan Arredondo for The New York Times

By Katie Robertson

April 13, 2026Updated 10:18 a.m. ET

A federal judge on Monday dismissed President Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal over its report of his lewd birthday greeting to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Judge Darrin Gayles in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida said in his decision that Mr. Trump had not “plausibly alleged” that The Journal published the article with actual malice, meaning that it knew what it was publishing was false, or had acted with reckless disregard as to its accuracy. He dismissed the complaint without prejudice, allowing Mr. Trump to bring the same claim again.A spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team said in a statement that the president would refile “this powerhouse lawsuit.”Mr. Trump’s lawsuit centered on an article published on July 17 with the headline: “Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album.” It described a letter that appeared to be from Mr. Trump in a 2003 birthday album compiled for Mr. Epstein. The article said the letter had a drawing of a naked woman on it with Mr. Trump’s signature below her waist, and a message that read: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”Mr. Trump denied that he had written the letter and said in a lawsuit filed the day after the article was published that “no authentic letter or drawing exists.”A copy of the birthday book including the letter first reported by The Journal was released to House Oversight Committee members by lawyers for Mr. Epstein’s estate in September.Mr. Trump sued The Journal’s parent company, News Corp, as well as Rupert Murdoch, News Corp’s founder; Robert Thomson, the chief executive; Dow Jones, the Journal’s publisher; and two Journal reporters.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Katie Robertson