The trump lawsuit took a major hit on Friday after a US judge dismissed the case without prejudice in Florida federal court. US District Judge Darrin Gayles said Donald Trump came “nowhere close” to showing the newspaper acted with actual malice. The ruling leaves Trump with until 27 April to file a new amended complaint.
Judge Says Case Falls Short
The lawsuit targeted the publisher of the and its owners, including Rupert Murdoch, over a July report about Trump’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Trump had sought at least $10 billion in damages, claiming the report defamed him by saying his name appeared in a “birthday book” given to Epstein in 2003. The newspaper’s description also said the message included a drawing of a woman’s body.
Judge Gayles said the complaint did not plausibly allege that the defendants published the article with actual malice. In defamation law, that standard requires proof that a statement was false and that the publisher knew it was false, should have known it was false, or acted in reckless disregard of whether it was false. The court’s dismissal without prejudice means the trump lawsuit is over for now, but not permanently barred.
Trump Team Signals A Refile
Trump’s lawyer said the president will refile what he called a “powerhouse” suit. In a separate statement, the lawyer said Trump will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in “Fake News” to mislead the American People. The defense side did not accept the court’s reasoning and signaled that the trump lawsuit will return in amended form.
Trump himself denied writing the message and called it “a fake thing. ” The newspaper did not publish an image of the note at the time, but the details it described later matched a picture released by Democratic lawmakers. That sequence became central to the dispute and to the court fight over whether the reporting crossed the legal line.
What The Ruling Means Next
The dismissal gives Trump one more chance to rewrite the case before the 27 April deadline. If he files again, the next stage will likely focus on whether his revised claims better support the high legal threshold for actual malice. For now, the trump lawsuit has been narrowed sharply, even as Trump’s legal team says it plans to keep pressing the case.
The broader background is the continuing clash over Epstein-related material and how the story tied Trump to a document described in the report. Judge Gayles’ ruling does not settle the political fight around the story, but it does mark a clear procedural setback for the president. The next move in the trump lawsuit now belongs to Trump’s lawyers, who have until late April to decide how far they want to push the case.
