US court dismisses Trump lawsuit against WSJ, gives option to refile

WASHINGTON: A US judge dismissed Donald Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal on Monday, but the court has allowed Trump to refile the case.

US District Judge Darren Giles in Miami said in his ruling that Trump failed to meet the legal standard known as ‘actual malice’, which a public figure must prove in a defamation case.

This standard requires proving that not only was the statement false, but that the person who published it knew or should have known that it was false.

The judge wrote that this complaint does not even come close to that standard, but rather the opposite.

According to the court, the newspaper’s reporters tried to get Trump to comment before publishing the story and also published his denials, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions.

This weakened Trump’s claim that the newspaper reported with malice.

The lawsuit was filed after a story claimed that Trump’s name was included in a 2003 birthday message for Jeffrey Epstein, a notorious financier and sex offender.

President Trump has called the message a hoax and sought $10 billion in damages, while Dow Jones, the owner of the Wall Street Journal, has defended the accuracy of its report.

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The judge has allowed Trump to re-file an amended petition by April 27. There was no immediate response from Trump’s lawyers or the White House on the case.

The lawsuit is one of several that President Trump has filed against various media outlets during his presidency, accusing them of unfair or inaccurate reporting.

Democrats and press freedom advocates have expressed concern that such lawsuits could be used to suppress critical journalism.