In his ruling, Gayles found that there was enough evidence to suggest that the Journal had done its due diligence in verifying the Epstein letter’s authenticity. The fact that Trump himself claimed that the letter was a forgery, Gayles said, did not mean that the Journal published the story “with serious doubts.”
President Donald Trump has refiled a lawsuit against the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.
According to The Guardian, the lawsuit claims that the Journal harmed Trump’s reputation by publishing an article alleging that he once sent a “bawdy” letter to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
A spokesperson for the president’s legal team described the case a “powerhouse lawsuit.”
“The President will continue to hold those who mislead the American People with Fake News and smears accountable for their actions,” the spokesperson said.
In April, Judge Darrin P. Gayles found that Trump’s attorneys had broadly failed to establish that the Journal’s article had been published in or with “actual malice.” However, the case was dismissed without prejudice, giving the president’s team an opportunity to amend and refile the lawsuit.
In his ruling, Gayles found that there was enough evidence to suggest that the Journal had done its due diligence in verifying the Epstein letter’s authenticity. The fact that Trump himself claimed that the letter was a forgery, Gayles said, did not mean that the Journal published the story “with serious doubts.”
The Guardian notes that Trump’s latest lawsuit continues to insist that the letter is a fake.
“The reason for those failures is that Defendants did not have access to any such letter when the Article was published, which is a fact because no authentic letter or drawing exists,” the amended lawsuit alleges.
The letter includes a drawing of a naked woman’s torso, as well as an imagined conversation between Trump and Epstein.
The lawsuit claims that, shortly before the article was published, Trump attempted to contact the Journal’s owner, Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch allegedly told Trump that he would “handle it,” leading the president to believe that the story would never hit the press.
“Of the two surviving individuals who could substantiate whether President Trump had submitted a birthday letter, one person, President Donald Trump, vehemently denied the existence of the alleged letter, and the other person [Ghislaine Maxwell] has testified to a federal official that she had no knowledge of it,” the lawsuit says. The defendants “either knew these facts, or deliberately avoided investigating such information, while nevertheless publishing the false, malicious, and defamatory article.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Dow Jones referred the New York Times to the company’s past remarks on the lawsuit. “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and we will vigorously defend against any lawsuit,” Dow Jones said.
Sources
Trump Refiles $10 Billion Lawsuit Against The Wall Street Journal
Trump refiles $10bn lawsuit against WSJ over report on alleged Epstein ties
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