Judge permanently dismisses Trump’s defamation lawsuit against Wall Street Journal over Epstein letter
A US federal judge has dismissed with prejudice Donald Trump’s lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, ending his legal challenge over the paper’s reporting on a birthday letter allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein.
A US judge has permanently dismissed Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, ruling that the president failed to show the newspaper acted with «actual malice» when it published its report on a sexually suggestive birthday note allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein. The dismissal, issued on Saturday, ends the case for good.
According to a court filing, the decision was made «with prejudice», meaning Trump may not amend his complaint or refile the claim. The ruling is the final step in a legal fight that began after the newspaper published its story about the letter, which Trump has disputed. The paper’s reporting described the note as sexually suggestive, a characterisation the president’s legal team contested by arguing that the article was false and damaging to his reputation.
The outcome matters because the legal standard Trump needed to meet is demanding. Public figures bringing defamation claims in the United States must prove that a publication either knew a statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. By finding that Trump had not met this threshold, the judge concluded that the claim could not proceed, regardless of the president’s objections to the story.
The case had already been through one round of rulings. In April, the court dismissed an earlier version of the lawsuit but allowed Trump to revise his complaint and try again. Saturday’s decision followed that second opportunity. The judge’s finding that the revised filing still did not establish actual malice closed the matter, and the earlier dismissal in April had left the door open only for that single attempt at amendment.
The lawsuit has been part of a broader pattern of legal and political disputes between Trump and the news media, and the Epstein matter has remained a sensitive subject for the president. Epstein, a financier, was arrested on federal sex trafficking charges and died in custody, and his associations have drawn continuing public and press scrutiny. The Wall Street Journal has maintained that its reporting was accurate and in the public interest. With the dismissal now final, the newspaper’s coverage stands unchallenged in this court, and Trump has no further route to pursue the claim through it.
Court filings and coverage of the ruling confirm the basic chronology: an initial dismissal in April, a revised complaint, and a final dismissal with prejudice on Saturday. The language of the order leaves no room for a further amended complaint, which makes the decision definitive for the parties involved. Reactions from the White House and the newspaper’s legal representatives were not detailed in the supplied material.
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