Three days before the midterms, a federal judge in Miami ended the Trump WSJ lawsuit for good. On Saturday, U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed President Trump’s $10 billion defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch with prejudice, CNBC reported. That means it cannot be refiled in his court.
Trump’s team says it will appeal. That is his right. Still, conservatives should be honest about what happened here. The president lost under a rule that protects every outlet, left or right, and that is no reason to rewrite the rules.
Key Takeaways
- Judge Darrin Gayles dismissed the Trump WSJ lawsuit with prejudice on Oct. 31 in a 20-page ruling.
- The judge found Trump again failed to plausibly allege actual malice, the standard public figures must meet.
- He did not decide whether Trump wrote the disputed 2003 birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein.
- Trump’s legal team told CNBC the president plans to appeal.
- Gayles first dismissed the suit in April, and Trump filed an amended complaint in May.
What the Judge Ruled in the Trump WSJ Lawsuit
The case grew out of a July 2025 Journal story. It described a sexually suggestive letter and drawing bearing Trump’s name in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Trump denied writing it and called the story “false, malicious, and defamatory”, the Associated Press reported.
Gayles was blunt. “Grasping at straws, the Amended Complaint attempts to manufacture flaws with the investigation,” he wrote. He also said the allegations of malice were “conclusory, vague, sometimes inconsistent with the Article, and often irrelevant”.
In addition, the judge pointed out that the Journal printed Trump’s denial. “Rather, it informed readers that President Trump decried the Letter as a fake and denied writing it,” he wrote, according to PBS and the AP. He called the paper’s work a “thoughtful and detailed investigation”.
Why Actual Malice Decided the Case
Under the Supreme Court’s 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, a public figure must show a publisher knew a story was false or acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Gayles found Trump’s amended complaint did not clear that bar.
Notably, the judge also rejected the idea that a denial alone should stop a story. That rule, he wrote, would let public figures block unfavorable reporting and “runs afoul of the First Amendment”, CNBC reported.
Conservatives have real complaints about Sullivan. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have both questioned whether the Court got it right. But that debate belongs at the Supreme Court, not in a long-shot suit against one newspaper.
The Conservative Case for Letting the Trump WSJ Lawsuit Go
Here is the uncomfortable truth. The same rule that sank this suit protects conservative outlets, talk radio hosts and podcasters every day. If one politician can sue a paper into silence, the next one can do the same to the shows you trust. A free press is a conservative value, even when the press is unkind.
The Journal is no left-wing rag, either. It runs one of the most conservative editorial pages in America. Moreover, it asked for Trump’s response before publishing, the court found, a point the Guardian also highlighted.
There is also the calendar. Voters head to the polls Tuesday, and they care about prices, paychecks and the border. Every hour spent on a dead libel case is an hour not spent on those issues. We made a similar point when a grand jury declined to indict Cassidy Hutchinson: when the process says no, take the hint and move on.
What Happens Next
Trump can still take the Trump WSJ lawsuit to the 11th Circuit. “President Trump will continue to press forward in his powerhouse lawsuit,” a spokesman told CNBC. Meanwhile, the Journal and Murdoch did not immediately comment. The president also faces a separate fight with the BBC, where a judge ordered him to sit for a deposition by Dec. 11.
For now, the ruling joins a busy week in federal court, including the fight over ballot segregation. Above all, it is a reminder that the law should apply the same way to the powerful as to everyone else.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does dismissed with prejudice mean?
It means the case cannot be refiled in that court. However, Trump can still ask an appeals court to reverse the ruling.
Did the judge decide whether Trump wrote the letter?
No. Gayles ruled only that Trump failed to plausibly allege actual malice. He did not decide who wrote the letter.
What do you think? Should Trump drop the appeal and focus on the midterms? Tell us in the comments.
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