A federal judge dismissed President Trump’s lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and its owners, saying he failed to crack the protections the First Amendment grants to the press.
Mr. Trump had complained about an article exploring alleged ties to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, disputing The Journal’s reporting that Mr. Trump had written a birthday letter to Epstein in 2003. The president, the White House and Mr. Trump’s lawyer vehemently denied the veracity of the letter to the reporter, but the paper published anyway.
Mr. Trump said the report was false and publishing it, over the denials, made it malicious — the standard required for a public figure to win a defamation case.
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Judge Darrin Gayles, an Obama appointee to the court in Florida, said he wasn’t ruling whether the letter was authentic or not, but he didn’t need to. He said Mr. Trump failed to show actual malice on the part of The Journal and its owners.
“Indeed, the allegations regarding malice are conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article, and often irrelevant to whether defendants knew or should have known that the statements in the article were purportedly false,” the judge wrote.
The judge called The Journal’s reporting “a thoughtful and detailed investigation.”
He also said the president’s denials can’t be enough to sink a story.
Judge Gayles said The Journal and its reporters on the story, and the paper’s owners, who were all named as defendants, may be entitled to have their legal fees paid by Mr. Trump, depending on whether New York’s or Florida’s law applies.
He said he needs to hear more briefing on that.
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