Judge permanently dismisses Trump’s Wall Street Journal lawsuit
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on MyJoyOnline
A US federal judge has permanently dismissed Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones. The president challenged an article about a letter bearing his name in a birthday album for Jeffrey Epstein, but Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that the case could not be brought again.
A US judge has permanently dismissed the $10 billion defamation lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump against Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, and its chief Rupert Murdoch. Judge Darrin Gayles said the case did not show that the newspaper had published defamatory information with “actual malice”, a requirement under US law, MyJoyOnline reports.
The case concerned an article about a letter attributed to Donald Trump and included in a birthday album prepared for financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. Trump denies writing or signing the letter, which included a drawing depicting a woman’s silhouette. The lawsuit, initially seeking $20 billion, had already been dismissed before being refiled for $10 billion.
The dismissal “with prejudice” prevents Donald Trump from filing the same lawsuit again. In his 20-page ruling, the judge described the Wall Street Journal’s investigation as “thoughtful and detailed” and said the lawsuit sought to manufacture flaws in the newspaper’s work.