Trump refiles $10 billion defamation suit against Wall Street Journal
Trump widened his $10 billion fight with the Journal, saying Rupert Murdoch promised to “handle” the Epstein story after a complaint call.
Donald Trump has refilled his $10 billion defamation fight against The Wall Street Journal, this time putting Rupert Murdoch at the center of the narrative and trying to turn a disputed news story into a test of media power, political leverage and press freedom.
The amended complaint, filed in federal court in Miami, names Murdoch, Dow Jones, News Corp, News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson, and Journal reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo. It says the defendants acted with reckless disregard for the truth or purposely avoided learning it, and it again seeks at least $10 billion in damages.
What changes most in the new filing is the Murdoch allegation. Trump’s complaint says Murdoch told him he would “handle” the story after Trump complained about it, a detail Trump appears to be using to argue that he believed the matter could be managed informally rather than through a public dispute. That moves the case beyond a fight over one article and toward a broader claim about who controls the flow of damaging information in an election-year media environment.
The suit stems from a Journal article about a birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein that allegedly bore Trump’s signature. Trump has denied writing the card and called it fake. In September 2025, the House Oversight Committee released a 238-page Epstein “birthday book” from Epstein’s estate that included an alleged Trump note and listed Trump in the “Friends” section. White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich said the note should help Trump because “it’s not his signature.”
Trump still faces a high legal bar. U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles dismissed the first version of the case in April, saying Trump had not plausibly alleged “actual malice,” and noted that the Journal contacted Trump, the Justice Department and the FBI for comment before publication. Gayles allowed Trump to amend and refile by April 27, leaving the substance of the dispute alive but the legal hurdles intact.
Dow Jones said it has “full confidence in the rigor and accuracy” of the Journal’s reporting and will vigorously defend the lawsuit. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019, and his case has continued to fuel conspiracy theories among some Trump supporters. The new filing ensures that, in addition to the courtroom fight, Trump’s clash with the press will remain part of the political messaging around his campaign-year grievances.
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