Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Wall Street Journal over Epstein birthday letter

Ruling ‘with prejudice’ means US president may not amend or refile his lawsuit over his alleged birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein

A US judge dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal with prejudice on Saturday, according to a court filing, bringing an end to his legal challenge over the newspaper’s reporting on his alleged birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein.

The decision follows an earlier dismissal in April that had allowed Trump to revise his complaint. As of Saturday, the case is dismissed with prejudice, meaning the lawsuit cannot be amended or refiled.

The case stemmed from a Wall Street Journal article alleging that Trump had sent a “bawdy” letter to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. Trump denied the letter was real, insisting instead it had been fabricated.

Throughout the proceedings, the court repeatedly pointed to the newspaper’s efforts to obtain Trump’s response before publication and its inclusion of his direct denials as evidence that it had followed appropriate reporting standards.

Judge Darrin P Gayles issued the final dismissal on Saturday after determining that Trump’s amended complaint still failed to establish “actual malice”, the high legal threshold public figures must meet when pursuing defamation claims.

“As President Trump has not plausibly alleged that each Defendant made defamatory statements with actual malice, the Amended Complaint must be dismissed,” the ruling said. “And because this is President Trump’s second attempt to allege his claims, the Court finds that dismissal with prejudice is appropriate.”

Trump, who has frequently pursued legal action against media organizations both during and outside his time in the White House, has maintained that the lewd drawing described in the Journal’s report was fake.

A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team shared a statement following the ruling: “President Trump will continue to press forward in his powerhouse lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all of the other defendants. The President will continue to hold those who mislead the American People with Fake News and smears accountable for their actions.”

A Dow Jones spokesperson said: “We’re pleased with the court’s decision.”

Representatives for the Journal had asked the judge to dismiss the claim, arguing that the story was accurate and that it did not meet the bar for defamation. They argued that the reporters had neither knowingly published false information nor proceeded with the belief that the material was likely to be false.

The lawsuit attracted particular attention because it named Rupert Murdoch, one of Trump’s most prominent media allies, among the defendants. Murdoch’s News Corporation media empire owns the Journal. Before the article was published on 17 July 2025, Trump personally contacted Murdoch in an effort to stop its publication.

The report was published under the headline “Jeffrey Epstein’s Friends Sent Him Bawdy Letters for a 50th Birthday Album. One Was From Donald Trump.”

The Journal did not originally publish the image, though it was released by the House oversight committee in September after it was provided by Epstein’s estate.