WSJ Files Scathing Motion Against Trump in Epstein Lawsuit, Calls His Claims Dishonest

Source: MEDIAite

Jun 10th, 2026, 8:49 pm


The Wall Street Journal has responded to President Donald Trump’s second attempt to sue for defamation over an article about an infamous note in Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday book, filing a scathing motion to dismiss that excoriates the president’s legal team for “groundless” and dishonest arguments. In 2025, Trump sued the Journal, the Journal’s publishing firm Dow Jones, parent company News Corp, owner Rupert Murdoch, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson, and two Journal reporters, Khadeeja Safdar and Joe Palazzolo, for defamation.

The complaint alleged that a July 17, 2025 Journal article by Safdar and Palazzolo reported that Trump had contributed a letter and a lewd drawing to a birthday album for Epstein, compiled by the convicted sex predator’s accomplice and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump vociferously denied the report, threatened to sue, and then did so a day later. Legal experts were highly skeptical of the lawsuit’s merit from the beginning. Because the president is a public figure, he has to prove the newspaper acted with “actual malice” in order to sustain a defamation claim; it’s a very high bar that political figures often fail to meet when attempting to sue journalists who have criticized them or published unflattering stories.

In September, the House Oversight Committee metaphorically nuked Trump’s case from orbit when it released a trove of materials provided by Epstein’s estate, including the birthday book. Inside the book was a page that said it was contributed by Trump, along with his signature, message, and drawing of a nude female figure — exactly as the Journal’s reporting had described it. In April, Judge Darrin P. Gayles of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, an Obama appointee, dismissed Trump’s complaint, finding that it had “not plausibly alleged that the Defendants published the Article with actual malice.”

The judge followed up in May by rejecting Trump’s request to engage in discovery and allowed some additional time to file an amended complaint. Trump’s 25-page First Amended Complaint, filed in late May, names the same defendants and again alleges the same two claims (defamation per se and defamation per quod), and demands $10 billion in damages. The Journal defendants filed their response Wednesday: a motion to dismiss and a motion to stay discovery while the court rules on the motion to dismiss.

Read more: https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/wsj-files-scathing-motion-against-trump-in-epstein-lawsuit-calls-his-claims-dishonest/