A federal judge has dismissed President Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal with prejudice, ending his pursuit of the case in that court. US District Judge Darrin P. Gayles, sitting in Miami, ruled on Saturday 31 October that Trump had again failed to plausibly allege that the newspaper acted with actual malice when it published its reporting.

The lawsuit concerned a Journal story published in July 2025 about a sexually suggestive letter said to bear Trump's name and included in a 2003 album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday. Trump denies writing the letter and accused the Journal of knowingly publishing a false story. Judge Gayles rejected the argument that the Journal should have withheld its story after Trump denied writing the letter, saying such a requirement would violate the First Amendment and block journalists whenever a public figure denies an accusation.

A second dismissal

The judge had previously dismissed the case in April, ruling that the original complaint relied on formulaic assertions of malice, but gave Trump an opportunity to file an amended complaint. The amended case sought at least $10 billion in damages, according to Reuters. In Saturday's ruling, Gayles found the revised complaint still failed to resolve those issues, writing, as with his first attempt, he has failed.

Dismissal with prejudice means the case cannot be refiled in that court, although Trump can appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The judge also gave the defendants 30 days to ask the court to make Trump pay their attorneys' fees. The ruling decides the defamation claim; it does not decide whether Trump wrote the letter, which he continues to deny.