Jeffrey Epstein

U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Florida dismissed former President Donald Trump's $10 billion defamation suit filed in July 2025 against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over a Journal article reporting on a sexually suggestive letter said to bear Trump's signature that appeared in a 2003 birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein. Gayles concluded Trump had not adequately pleaded actual malice — a necessary element for public-figure defamation claims — but granted him leave to file an amended complaint. The judge also rejected the defendants' bid to have the article's statements declared true at this early procedural stage, writing that whether Trump authored the letter or was Epstein's friend are factual questions not resolvable on a motion to dismiss.