A federal judge has thrown out Donald Trump’s second attempt to sue The Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch, and the journalists and publishers who reported on his alleged birthday letter to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which the president claims does not exist.
uncertain
president → throw → Epstein
The letter — allegedly signed by Trump and featuring a sexually suggestive drawing and a birthday wish that says “may every day be another wonderful secret” — was first published by the newspaper and then shared with members of Congress by the Epstein estate last year.
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day → sign → estate
Trump has repeatedly denied writing the letter and denied that a signature on the document is his.
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signature → deny → document
He filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit last summer, claiming that “no authentic letter or drawing exists” and blasted the story as a “false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS ‘article’ in the useless ‘rag’ that is.”
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that → file → rag
On Saturday, the judge overseeing the case dismissed the president’s lawsuit with prejudice, meaning Trump is permanently barred from trying to bring another case against the outlet.
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Trump → oversee → outlet
Trump failed to prove “actual malice,” the legal standard for proving defamation, according to Florida Judge Darrin P. Gayles.
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Trump → fail → Gayles
The president’s allegations are “conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the article, and often irrelevant to whether Defendants knew or should have known that the statements in the article were purportedly false,” the judge wrote.
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judge → know → article
The president appears to argue that, despite his denials, the newspaper acted with “actual malice” by publishing anyway, Gayles wrote.
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Gayles → appear → malice
“In effect, President Trump argues that once he declared the Letter a ‘fake,’ Defendants should have disregarded everything else they learned in their investigation and not published the story,” the judge added.
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judge → argue → story
“But that is not what the actual malice standard requires and runs afoul of the First Amendment,” he said.
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he → require → Amendment
“Indeed, were that the law, any time a public figure or his team denies an accusation, journalists would be immediately blocked from publishing negative or contradictory press.
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journalists → deny → press
The president has been “grasping at straws” to prove his case, according to the judge.
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president → grasp → judge
His order opens with a passage from the landmark Supreme Court ruling in The New York Times v Sullivan, which established that the First Amendment prohibits public figures from suing for defamation over allegedly false statements unless they can prove actual malice.
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they → open → malice
In an order dismissing Trump’s first shot at suing the newspaper, Gayles wrote that the president came “nowhere close to this standard.”
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president → dismiss → standard
“Quite the opposite,” he wrote in April.
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he → write → April
Last year, the newspaper published a 50th birthday greeting to Epstein from 2003, which included a message that said “We have certain things in common, Jeffrey” and “A pal is a wonderful thing.
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pal → publish → things
Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” all written inside the outline of a woman’s body
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all → write → body
The publication of the letter spurred a wave of new reporting about the government’s handling of investigations into Epstein, drawing more scrutiny into the president’s relationship with the wealthy sex offender and his alleged connections to a wider network of powerful figures.
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publication → spur → figures
Trump later reluctantly signed a measure into law compelling the release of millions of documents stemming from Epstein investigations, and members of Congress have launched parallel committee-led investigations into Epstein, his associates and his finances.
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members → sign → Epstein
The president’s name appears dozens of times within the so-called Epstein files.
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name → appear → files
Trump has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing, and one’s appearance in the Epstein files does not suggest otherwise.
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appearance → accuse → files
The president has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and insists he cut ties with Epstein years before the wealthy pedophile — who died by suicide in a New York City jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges — was under investigation.
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who → deny → investigation
His lawsuit “does not include a single plausible allegation” that The Wall Street Journal knowingly published false statements about him, lawyers for the defendants wrote in response last year.
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lawyers → include → response
The article is “true,” they wrote, and the evidence is publicly available for anyone to see.
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anyone → write → ?
In July, the president stood by awkwardly at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner as reporters for The Wall Street Journal won awards for their coverage of the scandal that inspired his lawsuit.
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that → stand → lawsuit
The president often shrugged or smiled as their reporting was described, and he shook some of the winners’ hands.
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he → shrug → hands
When it was his time to speak, the president joked that it had “not been an easy evening” hearing about their work.
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it → speak → work
The Aporia
