A federal judge on Saturday dismissed President Trump's lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over the paper's reporting on Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein, according to Axios. Judge Darrin Gayles of the Southern District of Florida dismissed the case with prejudice, which means Trump can't refile it. In a 20-page ruling, Gayles found that Trump failed to show the paper acted with "actual malice." That's the high bar public figures must clear to win a defamation case under the Supreme Court's landmark New York Times v. Sullivan decision.

Trump sued in July 2025, seeking $20 billion in damages. The case centered on a Journal story about a "bawdy" birthday letter bearing Trump's name that was given to Epstein, which Trump has insisted is fake. Gayles threw out the original complaint in April but let Trump file a revised version. Saturday's ruling rejected that second attempt. Gayles wrote that its claims of malice were "conclusory, vague," sometimes contradicted the article itself and were often irrelevant to whether the paper knew its reporting was false.

The ruling marks the second time this year a court has stopped Trump's legal fight over the Epstein story. A representative for Dow Jones, the Journal's parent company, said they were "pleased with the court's decision." A spokesman for Trump's legal team said the president "will continue to press forward" with what he called a "powerhouse lawsuit" and will keep holding accountable those who spread what the team called "Fake News and smears."