A federal judge threw out President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch on Monday, after the president alleged the publication defamed him by publishing details of his alleged birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein, delivering a blow to the president and his effort to downplay his ties with the late financier.
A Congressional staff member holds up the alleged birthday note President Donald Trump sent to Jeffrey Epstein, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, DC on September 17, 2025.
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Judge Darrin P. Gayles dismissed Trump’s defamation lawsuit against Wall Street Journal, parent company Dow Jones and Murdoch, which alleged the publication defamed him by reporting on his alleged letter to Epstein for the financier’s 50th birthday.
The Journal reported in July 2025 that Trump was one of Epstein’s friends who contributed a letter to the financier for a “birthday book” compiled by associate Ghislaine Maxwell, in which Trump drew an outline of a naked woman and imagined a conversation between him and Epstein, ending the letter with, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump has denied the authenticity of the letter, which was later made public after it was turned over to Congress by Epstein’s estate, and sued the Journal for defamation, arguing the publication and Murdoch, as its leader, intentionally published the claims despite knowing they were false.
Gayles did not rule on whether or not the letter is authentic, but threw out the case because there’s no indication the Journal acted with “actual malice” by knowingly publishing false claims, noting the publication “attempted to investigate” whether the claims were true by contacting Trump, the Justice Department and FBI for comment.
The Journal also included Trump decrying the letter as “fake” in the piece, Gayles noted, “allowing readers to decide for themselves what to conclude from the” article.
Trump’s legal team said Monday they would refile the lawsuit, after Gayles threw the lawsuit out “without prejudice,” meaning it can be brought again.
Gayles’ ruling throwing out the case means Murdoch will not have to give a deposition about the Epstein birthday book and the Journal’s reporting. Trump had asked the court to force Murdoch to testify in the case before there was a ruling on whether it should move forward, citing the 95-year-old billionaire’s advanced age. Both sides ultimately agreed Murdoch would only testify if the case wasn’t dismissed, however, saying in an August 2025 court filing Murdoch would be deposed within 30 days of a ruling allowing the case to move forward, but would not be interviewed otherwise.
Trump is known to have been friends with Epstein in the 1980s and 1990s, before the two ultimately had a falling out in the early 2000s. The president has attributed the falling out to Epstein allegedly “stealing” female workers at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate from him. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, but the resurgence of interest in the Epstein files over the past year has renewed speculation about the president’s relationship with the late financier and whether he knew about Epstein’s abuse of women. In addition to the “birthday book” and its statement about every day being a “wonderful secret,” Trump has also come under fire over an email in which Epstein claimed, “Of course [Trump] knew about the girls,” and documents in the Epstein files show Trump flew on Epstein’s plane with only the financier and a 20-year-old woman. The files also include allegations that Trump sexually assaulted an underage woman in the 1980s, but those claims remain unsubstantiated. The White House has broadly decried accusations against Trump in the Epstein files, and has pointed to a Justice Department statement noting the files include “untrue and sensationalist claims” about the president.
Trump’s lawsuit against the Journal was one of several the president has brought against major media companies who have reported unflattering stories about him, part of his long crusade against the “fake news” media. Trump has sued such outlets as the BBC, ABC News, CBS News, New York Times and CNN—and found success with getting high-dollar settlements in several of those cases, with ABC and CBS controversially paying Trump $15 million and $16 million, respectively. Also, Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company for Trump’s Truth Social platform, filed a lawsuit against 20 media organizations (including Forbes) in November 2023, alleging they defamed him by incorrectly reporting Truth Social financial losses. Courts have broadly otherwise not been persuaded by Trump’s claims of defamation, and Gayles’ ruling Monday comes after a federal appeals panel ruled in mid-March not to rehear Trump’s defamation claims against CNN, after two courts had already rejected his case.
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