<\/p>\n
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought by Donald Trump against The Wall Street Journal over an article describing a birthday letter linked to Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
The ruling underscores the high bar public figures face when suing news organisations , and reinforces protections for reporting that shows evidence of verification and outreach.<\/p>\n
US District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that Trump had not met the legal standard of \u201cactual malice\u201d required in defamation cases involving public figures. The lawsuit, which sought $10bn per claim, focused on a 2003 birthday book entry that included a letter signed \u201cDonald\u201d alongside an outline of a naked woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe complaint comes nowhere close to this standard,\u201d said Gayles, noting that Journal reporters sought comment from Trump and federal agencies before publication. \u201cIn short, the complaint and the article confirm that defendants attempted to investigate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s legal team argued the letter was fabricated to damage his reputation. Lawyers for Dow Jones, the Journal\u2019s publisher, said the reporting was accurate, pointing to a version of the letter later released by the House Oversight Committee. They also argued that the tone of the letter aligned with Trump\u2019s public persona.
\nThe court granted Trump until April 27 to file an amended complaint. A spokesman for his legal team said they intend to \u201crefile this powerhouse lawsuit.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision adds to a series of legal setbacks for Trump, including the dismissal of a similar $15bn lawsuit against The New York Times. Dow Jones said it stood by its reporting, citing its \u201creliability, rigor, and accuracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A federal judge on Monday dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought by Donald Trump against The Wall Street Journal over an article describing a birthday letter linked to Jeffrey Epstein. The ruling underscores the high bar public figures face when suing news organisations , and reinforces protections for reporting that shows evidence of verification and outreach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-publishing-news"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22141,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22139\/revisions\/22141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.hbmadvisory.com\/amplify\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}