Judge dismisses Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against Wall Street Journal over Epstein letter

A federal judge in Miami on Saturday dismissed President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, over a story about Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the suit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled, ruling that Trump did not show the defendants published the article with actual malice. The judge said the suit had tried to manufacture flaws in the Journal's reporting. The story, published last year, described a sexually suggestive birthday letter that the paper said bore Trump's name and was sent to Epstein in 2003; Trump has adamantly denied sending it. The ruling came about six months after Gayles first dismissed the suit. A spokesman for Trump's legal team said the president plans to appeal. The Journal and Murdoch did not immediately comment, and the White House did not immediately react.

Right-leaning coverage, represented here by the Washington Times, leads with the outcome, headlining that Trump lost the suit and stressing that he failed to overcome First Amendment press protections. Left-leaning NPR and HuffPost lead with the judge's line that Trump was "grasping at straws," and HuffPost calls the ruling a blow to Trump and lists his other media suits, including those with the BBC, AP, CNN, MS NOW and Politico. Alternative CNBC features the spokesman's vow to appeal and Trump's "Fake News" criticism, while Reason focuses on the Sullivan actual-malice standard. All sides report the dismissal; the left emphasizes the judge's wording, the right the constitutional outcome.