DST News: A US judge has dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10bn lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, describing the case as “grasping at straws”.
Trump sued the newspaper’s parent company, Dow Jones, and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, last year after the Journal published a report about a letter allegedly written by Trump to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The letter was reportedly included in a birthday book prepared for Epstein in 2003, before he was charged with sex crimes.
Trump has denied writing or signing the letter, which contained suggestive language and an outline drawing of a woman’s body.
Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the case, ruling that the lawsuit conflicted with the First Amendment, which protects freedom of the press.
The judge had previously dismissed Trump’s defamation lawsuit, which initially sought $20bn in damages. Trump’s legal team subsequently refiled the case, reducing the amount to $10bn. This time, however, Gayles dismissed it “with prejudice”, meaning it cannot be filed again.
The Journal’s report about Epstein’s 50th birthday book and the letter bearing Trump’s name emerged as the Trump administration faced intense bipartisan criticism over its handling of documents related to Epstein.
Trump accused the newspaper of slandering him and violating libel laws by publishing the report.
In his 20-page ruling, Gayles praised the newspaper’s “thoughtful and detailed investigation” and said the lawsuit was attempting to “manufacture flaws” in its reporting.
The judge also found that Trump’s legal team had failed to establish that the defendants made defamatory statements with “actual malice”, a requirement under the law.
Actual malice is a high legal standard. It requires evidence that a defendant knew a statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true.
Trump alleged that the letter obtained and published by the Journal, which bears his signature, was fake and claimed the defendants had fabricated the story to defame him.
According to Gayles, Trump’s lawyers argued that because Trump had denied writing the letter when contacted by the newspaper, the Journal should have ignored all other findings from its investigation and refrained from publishing the report.
“But that is not what the actual malice standard requires and runs afoul of the First Amendment,” Gayles wrote.
If such a standard were applied, the judge said, journalists would be prevented from publishing negative or contradictory reports whenever a public figure or their representatives denied an allegation. He described that outcome as contrary to the “American privilege to speak one’s mind”.
According to the Journal’s report, the letter bearing Trump’s name contained several lines of typewritten text surrounded by the outline of a naked woman, apparently drawn by hand with a thick marker.
The letter reportedly included the joking remark that “enigmas never age” and ended with the words: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret”.
Source: BBC
