Trump’s Lawsuit Against WSJ Over ‘Epstein Letter’ Report Dismissed by U.S. Court

U.S. President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion (approximately 14.815 trillion won) defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which reported that he had sent an obscene letter to the late billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the case was dismissed by the court.

According to the WSJ and other sources on the 13th (local time), Judge Darrin Gayles of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled that President Trump's legal team failed to prove the WSJ acted with 'actual malice' in its reporting.

U.S. President Donald Trump. Photo by AFP News Agency

Judge Gayles stated that President Trump’s side failed to demonstrate that the WSJ acted with malice or that it deliberately avoided investigating President Trump’s claim that the letter was fake. When a public figure claims defamation, it is necessary to prove that the report is false and that the media published it knowing it was false.

However, the judge allowed President Trump to file an amended complaint by the 27th. President Trump’s legal team plans to refile the lawsuit.

Dow Jones, the publisher of the WSJ, asked the court to rule that the article was not defamatory since it was factual, but the ruling did not address the substance of the report itself.

In July of last year, the WSJ reported that President Trump sent a letter to Epstein on the occasion of Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, which included a drawing of a naked woman in a lewd pose. The existence of this letter came to light after the U.S. Congress obtained a copy of Epstein’s birthday booklet from his family. This revelation exposed Trump’s past ties with Epstein, sparking a wave of public criticism against President Trump.

At the time, President Trump denied writing the letter and warned that he would take legal action. He claimed that the WSJ attempted to damage his reputation and filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking about $10 billion in damages against Dow Jones, the WSJ’s publisher, and its parent company News Corp. Rupert Murdoch, News Corp’s emeritus chairman, Chief Executive Officer Robert Thomson, and two WSJ reporters were named as defendants.

Dow Jones countered by asserting that the article was factual, citing the contents of the booklet copy obtained and released by Congress. The company also argued that the article included President Trump’s denial of having written the letter.

President Trump has filed lawsuits against media outlets for years. In September of last year, a defamation lawsuit that President Trump filed against the New York Times, four of its journalists, and Penguin Random House was also dismissed.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.