A Miami federal judge dismissed President Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against the Wall Street Journal Monday over a bombshell story about a lewd letter he purportedly sent to late sex predator Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday.
US District Judge Darrin Gayles concluded that Trump’s legal team had “not plausibly alleged that the Defendants published the Article with actual malice,” but allowed the president the chance to file an amended lawsuit.
Historically, defamation cases are difficult for public figures to win against media outlets due to court precedent requiring them to prove malicious intent. The judge noted that the Journal had reached out to Trump and his administration for comment.
The president’s suit claimed that “no authentic letter or drawing exists” in which Trump used “salacious language.”
House Democrats later publicly released the bawdy letter, which showed a hand-drawn naked woman and was initially only described by the Journal, this past fall.