Judge Dismisses Trump's $20 Billion WSJ Lawsuit With Prejudice

A federal judge has permanently thrown out Donald Trump's multi-billion dollar defamation lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal, Axios reported. The decision ends the legal challenge over the newspaper's coverage detailing ties between Trump and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Judge Darrin Gayles of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida dismissed the amended complaint with prejudice on Saturday afternoon. In a 20-page ruling, the judge determined that the lawsuit failed to establish that the news organization acted with actual malice, the constitutional standard established under New York Times v. Sullivan for defamation claims brought by public figures.

Trump initially launched the litigation in July 2025, seeking $20 billion in damages from Murdoch and the publication. The dispute centered on a report describing a birthday letter bearing Trump's signature that was delivered to Epstein, a document Trump insisted was fabricated.

Gayles had previously dismissed the original complaint in April while granting leave to amend. However, the revised complaint still fell short of legal requirements. Gayles wrote that the malice claims were "conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the Article, and often irrelevant to whether Defendants knew or should have known that the statements in the Article were purportedly false," according to court documents cited by Axios.

For major media conglomerates and press freedom advocates, the dismissal reinforces the durable legal shields surrounding reporting on public officials. As Hollywood Tomorrow notes, massive damage claims against news publishers continue to face nearly insurmountable hurdles at the pleading stage when plaintiffs cannot present clear evidence of reckless disregard for the truth.