Street Journal Seeks Dismissal of Trump Defamation Suit

The Wall Street Journal has asked a federal judge to dismiss President Donald Trump’s revised $10 billion defamation lawsuit, arguing his amended complaint merely repackages claims already rejected by the court. The newspaper filed a 22-page motion on Wednesday in Miami federal court, seeking a dismissal with prejudice and requesting the president be ordered to pay its attorney fees.

This legal action stems from a July 2025 Journal article detailing a lewd birthday note allegedly sent by Trump to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. The article reported that a commemorative book for Epstein’s 50th birthday contained a typewritten note attributed to Trump, framed by a hand-drawn sketch of a naked woman with his signature placed below the figure’s waist. Trump filed his initial lawsuit a day after the report was published, naming the Journal, its parent company News Corp., Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch, CEO Robert Thomson, and reporters Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo as defendants.

In April 2026, U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles dismissed the original complaint, ruling that Trump had failed to plausibly allege the defendants published the article with “actual...