Judge tosses Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against Journal, Murdoch

A federal judge in Miami threw out President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch, ruling that Trump had not plausibly alleged the “actual malice” required when a public figure sues over press coverage. The decision, issued by U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles, gave the Journal an early victory in one of the year’s most closely watched press-freedom fights and underscored how difficult it remains for powerful figures to turn unfavorable reporting into a viable defamation case.

The lawsuit stemmed from a July 17, 2025, Journal story about a 2003 birthday album assembled for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday by Ghislaine Maxwell. The article said Trump’s name appeared on a risque personal note tied to Epstein; Trump immediately denied it and called the letter fake. He filed suit the next day in Miami federal court, naming Dow Jones & Co., News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson, and Journal reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo. The complaint sought $10 billion in damages.

Gayles dismissed the case without prejudice on April 13, 2026, meaning Trump can file an amended complaint by April 27, 2026. The court reportedly found he came “nowhere close” to plausibly alleging that the defendants knowingly published false information, and noted that the Journal sought Trump’s comment before publication and printed his denial. Those facts cut directly against the claim that the paper acted with “actual malice,” the legal standard that public officials and other public figures must satisfy to win defamation cases.

Dow Jones said it was pleased with the dismissal and stood behind the “reliability, rigor and accuracy” of The Wall Street Journal’s reporting. Trump’s legal team said he would refile the “powerhouse lawsuit,” signaling that the fight is not over, even as the ruling placed a familiar obstacle in front of him: courts’ long-standing skepticism toward defamation claims from prominent political figures over reporting on matters already under intense public scrutiny.

The case also keeps Epstein’s network in the spotlight, years after his death by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019. More broadly, it adds to Trump’s pattern of threats and lawsuits against news organizations, and to the continuing legal test of how far public figures can go in using the courts to challenge reporting they say is false and harmful.