Trump Refiles $10 Billion Defamation Suit Against WSJ Over Report on Epstein Ties
Source: US News & World Report/Reuters
May 28, 2026, at 1:49 a.m.
NEW YORK, May 28 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday refiled a defamation lawsuit seeking at least $10 billion in damages against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, after a judge threw out an earlier version over legal deficiencies. The lawsuit is one of several Trump has brought in his personal capacity against news organizations, part of what critics say is a wider pressure campaign against the media.
Trump's lawsuit said the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper tarnished his reputation with an article describing a birthday card to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as bearing Trumps signature. Trump and his lawyers said the card is fake, even after it was released by lawmakers investigating Epsteins case.
Trump is seeking at least $10 billion in damages, according to the amended lawsuit. He had sought the same amount previously.
"At the time of publication, Defendants recklessly disregarded whether the Defamatory Statements were true and/or they purposefully avoided the discovery of the truth," lawyers for Trump wrote in the amended complaint.
The lawsuit filed in Miami federal court names Rupert Murdoch, Dow Jones, News Corp and its CEO Robert Thomson, along with two Wall Street Journal reporters, Khadeeja Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo, as defendants, saying they defamed Trump and caused him to suffer "overwhelming" financial and reputational harm.
Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2026-05-28/trump-refiles-10-billion-defamation-suit-against-wsj-over-report-on-epstein-ties
REFERENCE - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143664741 (has earlier references)
UpInArms
(55,456 posts)What utter bullshit
this POS has an army of trolls suing every thing
Vexatious litigation
Vexatious litigation is legal action which is brought solely to harass or subdue an adversary. It may take the form of a primary frivolous lawsuit or may be the repetitive, burdensome, and unwarranted filing of meritless motions in a matter which is otherwise a meritorious cause of action. Filing vexatious litigation is considered an abuse of the judicial process and may result in sanctions against the offender.
A single action, even a frivolous one, is usually not enough to raise a litigant to the level of being declared vexatious. Rather, a pattern of frivolous legal actions is typically required to rise to the level of vexatious. Repeated and severe instances by a single lawyer or firm can result in eventual disbarment.
Some jurisdictions have a list of vexatious litigants: people who have repeatedly abused the legal system. Because lawyers could be disbarred for participating in this abuse of the legal process, vexatious litigants are often unable to retain legal counsel, and such litigants, therefore, represent themselves in court. Those on the vexatious litigant list are usually either forbidden to take any further legal action or are required to obtain prior permission from a senior judge before taking any legal action. The process by which a person is added to the list varies among jurisdictions. In liberal democratic jurisdictions, declaring someone a vexatious litigant is considered to be a serious measure and rarely occurs, as judges and officials are reluctant to curtail a person's access to the courts.
These legal actions occur[dubious discuss] in some countries of the former British Empire, where the common law system still remains: Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, and US, which are specified below. Civil (codified/continental) law systems typically do not have a prohibition against vexatious litigation.
snip
The first such law outside the British Isles, the Supreme Court Act, 1927 was passed in Australia nearly thirty years later. This too was prompted by the behaviour of an individual, Rupert Millane.[4] The first vexatious litigant law in the United States was enacted in California in 1963. By 2007 four more US states had passed similar legislation: Florida, Hawaii, Ohio, and Texas.[2]
Bayard
(30,428 posts)Ray Bruns
(6,808 posts)How does one tarnish a rusted blade?
Worf, son of Mogh.
purr-rat beauty
(1,502 posts)....firstly this seems highly Unconstitutional
What about double jeopardy? Is that a thing?
Is discovery a thing?
Miguelito Loveless
(5,949 posts)only applies to criminal cases, not civil. As the case was not dismissed "with prejudice", he is free to refile.
LetMyPeopleVote
(182,705 posts)trump and his attorneys need to be sanctioned
melm00se
(5,177 posts)allowed for a refiling of the case and they have done that.
Their obligation in refiling the case is that they assert and can back up the claim that the WSJ acted with "actual malice."
Having read the refiling, Trump's team is claiming that their assertion that the document is false and Maxwell's assertion that she did not recall Trump submitting a letter as they are the only remaining witnesses still alive at the time of the publication is sufficient to show that the WSJ acted with "actual malice."
That may meet the requirement that the court established to refile the case.
I do not think that their assertions/claims will be sufficient to overcome the fact that birthday book did include said letter and that letter has a signature that appears to be consistent with Trump's signature.
LetMyPeopleVote
(182,705 posts)The presidents first lawsuit against the newspaper was an embarrassing flop. The sequel is likely to meet the same fate.
www.ms.now/rachel-maddo... "Trump sues The Wall Street Journal (again) over reporting on Epstein ties"
— Martin Napier (@mnapier76.bsky.social) 2026-05-28T14:28:43.453Z
I mean, sooner or later, WSJ should take a page from Trump and sue Trump's companies for billions. They will have no choice but to either settle (which they won't) or faceplant by decision.
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-sues-wall-street-journal-again-epstein-defamation
The Republican added soon after, The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldnt print this Fake Story. But he did, and now Im going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper.
In mid-July, the president did, in fact, file the defamation suit, seeking a jury trial and a judgment of at least $10 billion. Last month, the case flopped when a federal judge dismissed it.
This month, hes trying again. The Wall Street Journal reported:
President Trump on Wednesday filed a revised lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, after a judge dismissed an earlier complaint that alleged he was defamed by an article about a birthday letter to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. [ ]
The new complaint alleges that the defendants acted with such malice in several aspects, citing Trumps repeated denial of any involvement with the letter. Like the previous version, it is seeking billions of dollars in damages.
Time will tell what becomes of the litigation, though recent history suggests that the plaintiff should keep his expectations low. Indeed, recent history is highly relevant.
The Trump campaigns 2020 case against CNN failed. Trumps 2021 case against The New York Times failed. Trumps 2023 case against journalist Bob Woodward failed. The Trump campaigns case against The Washington Post failed. Trumps so-called class-action lawsuit against social media giants also failed. (Last year, Trump filed a $15 billion civil suit against The New York Times, which was thrown out four days later, not because it lacked merit, but because a federal judge found that the presidents lawyers court filing was simply too ridiculous.)
Americans have never before had a president who sued independent news organizations, individual journalists or both for publishing reports the White House disapproved of, but we have also never before had a president lose so many civil cases while in office.
The lawyers who filed this lawsuit need to worry about sanctions and/or disbarment. Habba got sanctioned $1 million a while back when trump tried to sue Hillary Clinton and others.