By MEG KINNARD and JOSH BOAK Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch on Monday over a story on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Florida wrote in the order that Trump had failed to make the argument that the article was published with the intent to be malicious, but gave the president a chance to file an amended complaint.
In a social media post several hours after the ruling, Trump said the decision “is not a termination” but rather a “suggested re-filing” of his “powerful case,” which Trump said would be done “on or before April 27th.”
Trump filed the lawsuit in July, following up on a promise to sue the paper almost immediately after it put a new spotlight on his well-documented relationship with Epstein by publishing an article that described a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper said bore Trump’s signature and was included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday.
The letter was subsequently released publicly by Congress, which subpoenaed the records from Epstein’s estate. Trump denied writing it, calling the story “false, malicious, and defamatory.”
Attorneys for the newspaper and Murdoch had asked Gayles to rule that the article’s statements were true and therefore couldn’t be defamatory, but the judge wrote that “whether President Trump was the author of the Letter or Epstein’s friend are questions of fact that cannot be determined at this stage of the litigation,” Gayles wrote.
The ruling marks yet another blow in the Trump administration’s efforts to manage fallout over its release of the Epstein files and the president’s attempts to use the legal system to chill reporting he finds critical of him.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Dow Jones, which publishes the Journal, said the organization was “pleased” with the judge’s decision, adding, “We stand behind the reliability, rigor and accuracy of The Wall Street Journal’s reporting.”