Trump loses $10bn defamation case against WSJ over Epstein-related article

A judge has dismissed Donald Trump’s $10bn (£7.5bn) lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) for publishing a lewd birthday note sent by the president to Jeffrey Epstein.

The US president brought a case against the newspaper after it published an article in July 2025 featuring a drawing of a naked woman’s torso and a birthday message suggesting the pair “have certain things in common”, apparently signed by Mr. Trump in 2003.

The signature appeared to mimic the nude woman’s pubic hair.

The US president denied sending the card, which imagined a cryptic conversation between the two men ending with: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
“Enigmas never age,” he allegedly wrote elsewhere in the card.

In his lawsuit, Mr. Trump claimed the alleged birthday greeting was fake and said that he did not “draw pictures”. He asked for $10bn for what he called damage to his reputation.

However, Judge Darrin Gales dismissed the case on Monday, saying that Mr. Trump had not presented enough evidence to convince him that the WSJ, owned by Rupert Murdoch, had published the article “with malice”.

To meet the actual malice threshold, Mr. Trump’s lawyers would have had to prove that the WSJ’s claim that the note was written and penned by Mr. Trump was false, but also that the newspaper and its journalists knew or should have known that it was false.

That means they must prove not only that a public statement about them was false but also that the media outlet or person who made the statement knew or should have known that it was false.

“This complaint comes nowhere close to this standard,” Mr. Gayles wrote. “Quite the opposite.”

The judge wrote that the journalists contacted Mr. Trump for comment beforehand and printed his denial, allowing readers to decide for themselves what to conclude.

At the time, Mr. Trump said he “personally” called Mr. Murdoch to have the story spiked and was assured by the mogul that he would “take care of it but, obviously, did not have the power to do so”.

Lawyers for the newspaper had also argued that the lawsuit threatened free speech and was an effort to silence those who publish content that Mr. Trump does not like.

The lawsuit is one of several Mr. Trump has filed during his presidency against media outlets about reporting he claims is “fake news”.

The US president has a lawsuit ongoing against the BBC for $10bn after The Telegraph revealed the corporation had doctored his Jan 6, 2021 speech to supporters in a Panorama documentary, making it appear as though he had encouraged the Capitol Hill riot.

Mr. Gayles said Mr. Trump could file an amended version of the lawsuit by April 27.

Neither Mr. Trump’s lawyers in the case nor the White House immediately responded to requests for comment.

The Epstein scandal has dogged Mr. Trump throughout his second term.

The US president has faced accusations about their 15-year friendship and has been forced to release documents held by the US government on the paedophile, known as the Epstein files.

Mr. Trump denies having any prior knowledge of the financier’s criminality and insists that he ended their friendship years before Epstein was first investigated by police in 2005.

On Thursday, Mr. Trump’s wife, Melania, made a surprise statement to the media, insisting that she did not have a relationship with Epstein, nor was she a victim of his.

The US first lady distanced herself from the late paedophile, denying any prior knowledge of his crimes and calling on Congress to uncover the truth about his associates.

“To be clear, I never had a relationship with Epstein or his accomplice, [Ghislaine] Maxwell,” Mrs. Trump said.