A U.S. judge on Saturday dismissed with prejudice Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, according to a court filing, ending his legal challenge over the newspaper’s reporting of his alleged birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein.
This decision follows a previous dismissal in April which allowed Trump to revise his complaint. As of Saturday, the case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the lawsuit cannot be amended or refiled.
The case stems from a Wall Street Journal article alleging that Trump sent a “bawdy” letter to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. Trump has denied the letter was real, insisting instead that it was fabricated.
Throughout the proceedings, the court repeatedly highlighted the newspaper’s efforts to obtain Trump’s response before publication and the inclusion of his direct denials as evidence that it followed proper reporting standards.
Judge Darrin P. Gayles issued the final dismissal Saturday after determining that Trump’s amended complaint still failed to establish “actual malice,” the high legal threshold that public figures must meet when filing defamation suits.
“Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that each defendant made defamatory statements with actual malice, the amended complaint must be dismissed,” the decision states. “And because this is President Trump’s second attempt to assert his allegations, the Court finds that dismissal with prejudice is appropriate.”
Trump, who has frequently filed lawsuits against media organizations during and outside his tenure in the White House, has maintained that the obscene drawing depicted in the Journal’s report is false.
A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team shared a statement following the ruling: “President Trump will continue to pursue his powerful lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all other defendants. The President will continue to hold accountable those who mislead the American people with fake news and smears.”
A Dow Jones spokesperson said: “We are pleased with the court’s decision. »
Journal representatives had asked the judge to dismiss the complaint, arguing that the article was accurate and did not meet the criteria for defamation. They argued that the journalists neither knowingly published false information nor thought the information was likely false.
The trial attracted particular attention because it named among the defendants Rupert Murdoch, one of Trump’s most prominent media allies. Murdoch’s News Corporation media empire owns the Journal. Before the article was published on July 17, 2025, Trump personally contacted Murdoch in an attempt to stop its publication.
The report was published under the headline “Jeffrey Epstein’s friends sent him bawdy letters for a 50th birthday album. One was from Donald Trump.”
The Journal did not initially publish the image, although it was released by the House Oversight Committee in September after being provided by Epstein’s estate.
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