A federal judge on Saturday threw out President Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media baron Rupert Murdoch, and this time he made sure it can’t come back.
U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami dismissed Trump’s amended lawsuit with prejudice, meaning Trump is barred from filing another version of the case in that court. The ruling comes roughly six months after Gayles first dismissed the $10 billion suit in April, when he left the door open for Trump to try again with an amended complaint.
What the lawsuit was about
Trump sued over a Wall Street Journal story reporting that he had sent a “bawdy” letter for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, part of a birthday album compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump has adamantly denied writing the letter and called it fake. According to court records, his lawyers warned the paper’s publisher not to run the story before it was published.
The amended complaint added new details, including a claim that Murdoch told Trump “I will handle it” during a phone call about the article, according to earlier reporting by Newsweek.
Why the judge ruled against Trump
Because Trump is a public figure, he has to show “actual malice” to win a defamation case. That means proving the publisher knew a story was false or recklessly disregarded whether it was true. Gayles ruled, as he did the first time, that Trump had “not plausibly alleged that the Defendants published the Article with actual malice.”
“As with his first attempt, he has failed,” Gayles wrote in Saturday’s ruling. “Grasping at straws, the Amended Complaint attempts to manufacture flaws with the investigation.”
The judge also described Trump’s allegations as “conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article, and often irrelevant” to whether the defendants knew or should have known the reporting was false, as reported by The Independent.
In his April ruling, Gayles noted that the Journal had contacted Trump, the Justice Department and the FBI for comment before publishing, and that the article included Trump’s denial, which he said cut against any claim of actual malice.
Trump’s team vows to keep fighting
The dismissal doesn’t completely end Trump’s options. He can still ask a federal appeals court to review the decision.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the president “will continue to press forward in his powerhouse lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all of the other defendants,” adding that he “will continue to hold those who mislead the American People with Fake News and smears accountable for their actions.”
The ruling lands just three days before Tuesday’s midterm elections and is a major setback in Trump’s long-running legal campaign against news organizations he accuses of treating him unfairly.
This story is based on reporting from CNBC, The Associated Press, Reuters and The Independent.