Monday morning begins with a slight setback on the litigation front for President Donald Trump: A federal judge in Florida has dismissed his lawsuit for defamation against the Wall Street Journal and related defendants. But — it's important to note that this dismissal was "without prejudice," meaning Trump is free to amend his complaint and take another crack at the case if he wishes to do so.
To quickly refresh, in July, Trump sued the WSJ and related individuals/entities for defamation after the Journal ran what was hailed as a damning exposé — claiming that its reporters had seen a birthday album compiled for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday (in 2003) by his partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell, which included a "bawdy" birthday card from Trump to Epstein. Trump denied having authored the note and followed that up with a statement that he intended to sue the WSJ and Rupert Murdoch over the report, filing the suit in the Southern District of Florida the following day.
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The defendants moved to dismiss the suit, asserting that Trump's complaint failed to state a claim, and on that, Judge Darrin Gayles agreed. Because Trump is a public figure, the standard for stating a claim (under New York Times v. Sullivan) is that he must plead (and later prove) the defendants acted with "actual malice" in publishing the article — in other words, that the defendants either knew the statements were false or recklessly disregarded whether they were false. The complaint fell short of that, according to Gayles, relying on formulaic, conclusory allegations, such as that defendants “knew or should have known” the story was false, and thus, he granted the motion to dismiss.
However, the judge declined to award the defendants attorney fees at this point, indicating he is not characterizing the suit as meritless. In fact, as noted above, the dismissal is without prejudice, and the Trump team has until April 27 to amend the complaint, which, one suspects, they will.
So, as indicated, a slight setback — but not the final word on the suit. RedState will continue to monitor the case and pass along any notable developments.
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