President Donald Trump walks from the podium after talking at a marketing campaign rally at the Ocean Center, in Daytona Beach, Fla., Friday, Oct. 30, 2026.

Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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Jacquelyn Martin/AP

Saying the president was “grasping at straws,” a federal decide on Saturday threw out Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over a story reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami dismissed the swimsuit with prejudice, ruling that the president did not show the defendants made defamatory statements with precise malice as required by regulation. The ruling said the lawsuit had tried to “manufacture” flaws in the Journal’s investigative reporting.

When a case is thrown out “with prejudice,” it can not be refiled again and the dismissal is everlasting and incontrovertible.

The dismissal is a blow to Trump and his administration, which have both pursued adversarial relationships with information organizations during his second time period. In addition to the Journal, he is embroiled in lawsuits involving the BBC, The Associated Press and — most just lately — CNN, MS NOW and Politico, which are suing him for restored entry after he banished them from the White House in mid-September.

Trump has denounced media retailers that write issues to which he objects and incessantly calls them “fake news” and insults their journalists.

The White House did not instantly react publicly to Saturday’s dismissal or reply to an AP request for remark.

Trump called the reporting ‘malicious’

The lawsuit against the Journal was over a story it revealed last 12 months describing a sexually suggestive letter and drawing that the paper said bore Trump’s identify and was included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein’s fiftieth birthday.

The letter was reportedly collected by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell as half of a birthday album for Epstein years before he was first arrested in 2006 and subsequently had a falling-out with Trump.

The letter bearing Trump’s identify contains textual content framed by the define of what seems to be a hand-drawn bare lady and ends with, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” according to the newspaper.

Trump denied writing it and called the story “false, malicious, and defamatory.”

The lawsuit, filed in federal court docket in Miami, accused the paper and its reporters of having “knowingly and recklessly” revealed “numerous false, defamatory, and disparaging statements,” which, it alleged, brought about “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” to the president.

Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal intercourse trafficking expenses.

The lawsuit was dismissed once, then refiled

Gayles beforehand dismissed the swimsuit in April, saying Trump had failed to make the argument that the article was revealed with the intent to be malicious. But he gave the president a likelihood to file an amended criticism, which he did in May.

In Saturday’s ruling, the decide cited the Supreme Court’s landmark 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. That determination made it tougher for public figures to win libel lawsuits because it requires proof that a media outlet knowingly revealed something false or confirmed a reckless disregard for the fact.

“The Amended Complaint falls short of pleading actual malice,” Gayles wrote. “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 decide also famous that the Journal’s story did not ignore or decrease Trump’s denial, “Rather, it informed readers that President Trump decried the Letter as a fake and denied writing it.”

Gayles also said several other allegations in the lawsuit did not have benefit.