Judge Crushes Trump's $10 Billion Wall Street Journal Suit

The case is over.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami threw out Donald Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch on Saturday.

Gayles dismissed the suit with prejudice, a legal ruling that makes the dismissal permanent and prevents the case from being refiled.

The judge wrote that the president was grasping at straws and attempted to manufacture flaws in the newspaper's investigative reporting.

Trump filed the suit in federal court in Miami last year over a story detailing a sexually suggestive letter and drawing that bore his name.

The Journal reported that the letter was part of a 2003 album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday.

Disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell collected the letter, which included a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman and ended with the phrase Happy Birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret.

Trump denied writing the document and called the original reporting false, malicious, and defamatory.

His legal team argued that the paper and its reporters knowingly and recklessly published numerous false statements that caused overwhelming financial and reputational harm to the president.

Gayles had previously dismissed the case in April but allowed Trump to file an amended complaint, which he did in May.

In the new ruling, the judge cited the 1964 Supreme Court decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.

That landmark case requires public figures to prove that a media outlet knowingly published false information or showed a reckless disregard for the truth, a standard known as actual malice.', "Gayles stated that the amended complaint fell short of pleading actual malice.', "The judge described the allegations regarding malice as conclusory, vague, and often irrelevant to whether the defendants knew or should have known the statements were false.', "The ruling also noted that the Journal did not ignore Trump's denial of the letter's authenticity.', "Instead, the story informed readers that the president decried the letter as a fake and denied writing it.', "This dismissal adds to a series of legal conflicts between Trump and news organizations during his second term.', "He is currently involved in lawsuits with the BBC, The Associated Press, and CNN, MS NOW, and Politico.', "The latter group is suing to restore their access to the White House after Trump banished them in mid-September.', "Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.'