President Donald Trump‘s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over a story on a 50th birthday card he allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein has been dismissed.
United States District Judge Darrin Gayles tossed the case on Monday, April 13, after ruling Trump’s suit “comes nowhere close” to reaching the standard of actual malice.
“Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that defendants published the article with actual malice, both counts must be dismissed,” Gayles wrote in his ruling, obtained by Us Weekly.
In order to reach the standard of actual malice, Gayles said Trump, 79, would have to prove the “false statement was made with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”
Gayles pointed out that before running its story, the Wall Street Journal had contacted Trump, Justice Department officials and the FBI for comment.
“President Trump responded with his denial, the Justice Department did not respond at all and the FBI declined to comment,” court documents stated. “In short, the complaint and article confirm that defendants attempted to investigate. The article also states that the WSJ reviewed the letter.”
In response to the judge’s ruling, Trump’s legal team released a statement and suggested the legal battle isn’t over.
“President Trump will follow the judge’s ruling and guidance to refile this powerhouse lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all of the other defendants,” a spokesman for Trump’s legal team told NBC News. “The President will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in Fake News to mislead the American people.”
A spokesperson for the Wall Street Journal‘s publisher, Dow Jones and Co., said of the ruling, “We are pleased with the judge’s decision to dismiss this complaint. We stand behind the reliability, rigor and accuracy of The Wall Street Journal’s reporting.”
In July 2025, Trump filed a lawsuit after the publication published a story saying a birthday book that had been assembled for Epstein’s birthday in 2003 appeared to have included a card from the now-president.
“We have just filed a POWERHOUSE Lawsuit against everyone involved in publishing the false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is, The Wall Street Journal,” Trump wrote on Truth Social at the time.
The lawsuit requested at least $10 billion in damages and a jury trial.
A copy of a card matching the Wall Street Journal’s description was later released by Epstein’s estate. Trump and the White House, however, maintain that the card is a fake.
In his latest ruling, Gayles declined to make a determination about the note’s legitimacy, writing that “whether President Trump was the author of the letter or Epstein’s friend are questions of fact that cannot be determined at this stage of the litigation.”
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