A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over an article about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. However, the President can modify the submission.
A US federal judge on Monday rejected a lawsuit that US President Donald Trump filed against the Wall Street Journal for an article about his links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump demanded compensation of ten billion dollars from the WSJ and media mogul Rupert Murdoch, writes TASR according to a report from the AP agency.
- Federal Judge Darrin P. Gayles has dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal.
- Trump demanded ten billion dollars in damages from WSJ and Rupert Murdoch.
- The judge found that Trump did not prove intentional harm by the newspaper.
Florida District Court Judge Darrin P. Gayles said in the ruling that Trump had failed to prove that the WSJ article was published with the intent to harm him. However, he also gave the President the opportunity to file an additional lawsuit.
Publication of the disputed article
Trump sued the WSJ last July shortly after the paper published an article about a letter with sexual undertones and a drawing of a nude woman the Republican allegedly once wrote to Epstein. The article states that the letter with Trump’s signature was part of an album of greetings for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.
The US president denied writing the letter and called the article “false, malicious and defamatory”. It was later officially released by the US Congress, which requested records from Epstein’s estate.
Criticism of journalistic work
The AP agency described the federal court’s decision as another blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to deal with the consequences of the publication of investigative files in the Epstein case and the president’s attempts to use the legal system to suppress journalism he considers critical of himself.
In the lawsuit, he accused the WSJ and its reporters of “knowingly and recklessly” publishing “a number of false, offensive and disparaging statements” that he said caused him “severe financial and reputational harm.”
Epstein’s death
Epstein was found dead on August 10, 2019 in his cell at a New York City jail where he was awaiting trial on charges of sexual abuse and trafficking of minors. The medical examiner established the cause of death as suicide by hanging.
