A federal judge on Monday threw out President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal after Trump sued the paper<\/a> last July for its reporting on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday book.\u00a0<\/p>\n In his order issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles concluded that Trump failed to prove that the Wall Street Journal knowingly published false information\u00a0in the paper’s July article on an alleged letter from Trump that was included in Epstein’s 50th birthday book<\/a> in 2003.<\/p>\n “Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that Defendants published the Article with actual malice, both Counts must be dismissed,” the order said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning that Trump could attempt to refile the case by April 27.\u00a0<\/p>\n In court filings, Trump’s lawyers had argued that the article and surrounding coverage were a “deliberate smear campaign designed to damage President Trump’s reputation” and subject the president to “public hatred and ridicule.”<\/p>\n In a 17-page ruling, Judge Darrin Gayles concluded that President Trump came “nowhere close” to the legal standard to prove that the Wall Street Journal acted with malice when it published its reporting about the birthday letter.\u00a0<\/p>\n Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell told the Justice Department’s Todd Blanche last year that Epstein had asked her to\u00a0coordinate contributions<\/a>\u00a0to a book celebrating his 50th birthday, but said she could not recall if President Trump, then a private citizen, was among those who responded.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump attends UFC 327, April 11, 2026 in Miami, Florida.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Julia Demaree Nikhinson\/via Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Trump filed the suit by arguing that the Journal “acted with serious doubts about the truth of their reporting” because the president had claimed the letter was fake. However, Judge Gayles concluded that the reporters “attempted to investigate” the letter and did not act recklessly just because Trump denied its authenticity.\u00a0<\/p>\n “To establish actual malice, ‘a plaintiff must show the defendant deliberately avoided investigating the veracity of the statement in order to evade learning the truth,'” the ruling said. “The Complaint comes nowhere close to this standard. Quite the opposite.”\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Darrin](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/2b1f3004-2f92-4c90-b54a-6e892048f271\/donald-trump-6-rt-gmh-260413_1776082690280_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"Darrin")
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