Judge dismisses Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit over Epstein birthday card story

A federal judge in Florida has thrown out, for a second and final time, President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that Trump's amended complaint did not plausibly show the newspaper's journalists and editors acted with actual malice, the demanding standard public figures must meet. Because this was Trump's second try, the dismissal is with prejudice, meaning he cannot refile, according to NBC News.

The case arose from the Journal's reporting last July on a birthday book Ghislaine Maxwell compiled for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003. It described a card bearing Trump's first name, signed inside a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman, along with a typewritten note. Trump and the White House say the card is fake. Epstein's estate later made public a card matching the Journal's description. Democrats have assembled documents on which Trump signed only his first name, and NBC News reports the signatures look very similar to the one on the card.

The newspaper's lawyers argued the Journal investigated, reached out to Maxwell, and told readers of Trump's denial. They also said the card's release supports the reporting's substantial truth.

Summarized by PolitiKool from NBC News’s reporting. Read the full story at NBC News →