A U.S. federal judge on Saturday threw out U.S. President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch over a story reporting on his ties to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami dismissed the suit with prejudice, ruling that the U.S. president did not prove the defendants made defamatory statements with actual malice. The ruling said the lawsuit was “grasping at straws” as it attempted to “manufacture” flaws in the Journal’s investigative reporting. When a case is thrown out “with prejudice,” it cannot be refiled again and the dismissal is permanent and incontrovertible. The lawsuit was over a story the Journal published last year describing a sexually suggestive letter that the paper said bore Trump’s name and was included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday. The letter was reportedly collected by disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell as part of a birthday album for Epstein years before he was first arrested in 2006 and subsequently had a falling-out with Trump. The letter bearing Trump’s name includes text framed by the outline of what appears to be a hand-drawn naked woman and ends with, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” according to the newspaper. Trump denied writing it and called the story “false, malicious, and defamatory.” The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, accused the paper and its reporters of having “knowingly and recklessly” published “numerous false, defamatory, and disparaging statements,” which, it alleged, caused “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” to the U.S. president. Dave Collins, The Associated Press
