A Florida judge dismissed the amended defamation case with prejudice, finding Trump had not adequately alleged knowing or reckless falsehood.
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A federal judge dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch on 31 October, a court order shows.
US District Judge Darrin P. Gayles dismissed the amended complaint with prejudice in Miami. Trump’s legal team said it would appeal, The Washington Post reported.
“The Amended Complaint falls short of pleading actual malice,” Gayles wrote in the ruling.
The dispute concerns a July 2025 article describing a sexually suggestive message bearing Trump’s name in an album prepared for Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. Trump denies writing it.
The dismissal prevents Trump from filing another amended version of the complaint in this case. It follows an earlier dismissal in April, after which Gayles allowed him to revise his allegations.
The case turned on the demanding legal standard for defamation claims brought by public figures. Actual malice means publishing information knowing it is false or recklessly disregarding whether it is true.
Gayles found that Trump’s amended allegations did not adequately meet that standard. The ruling addressed whether the lawsuit could proceed, rather than determining at trial who wrote the disputed message.
A representative of Dow Jones, the Journal’s publisher, welcomed the decision, Axios reported.
Trump’s lawsuit alleged that the newspaper and its reporters knowingly or recklessly published false statements that caused financial and reputational harm, AP reported.
His lawyers argued that the newspaper should have abandoned the story after he denied involvement, Reuters reported. Gayles rejected that argument, saying a public figure’s denial did not require journalists to discard their investigation.
The judge also rejected criticism of the newspaper’s reporting process. He pointed to reporters’ efforts to obtain comment from Trump and other officials before publication, according to Reuters.
Gayles said the Journal had included Trump’s denial rather than concealing or minimising it. Readers were also told that the circumstances in which the letter was prepared were unclear.
The dispute continued after Congress obtained records from Epstein’s estate. The House Oversight Committee announced on 8 September 2025 that it was releasing documents supplied in response to an August subpoena.
The released material included the birthday album containing the message attributed to Trump. Its publication did not resolve his denial of authorship.
Republican committee chairman James Comer said at the time that Trump was not accused of wrongdoing and criticised Democrats’ handling of the documents.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, AP reported.
The court has not yet decided whether the defendants can recover legal fees and costs. Gayles retained jurisdiction over that issue and gave them 30 days from the order to submit a motion.
