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Politics324 outlets ran this3 min read

Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Wall Street Journal

Federal judge ruled Donald Trump did not prove defamation with actual malice.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
U.S. President Donald Trump listens at a campaign rally at the Ocean Center, in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Friday. Trump's multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and media mogul Rupert Murdoch was dismissed on Saturday. (Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press)

What this story says

  • A federal judge dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch.
  • The lawsuit stemmed from a 2023 story reporting on Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein and a sexually suggestive birthday letter.
  • The judge ruled Trump failed to prove the defendants made defamatory statements with actual malice.
  • The dismissal was 'with prejudice,' meaning the case cannot be refiled.

Who covered it

Left 31%(79)Centre 52%(133)Right 17%(44)

Percentages are shares of the 256 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 68 of the 324 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

48/100

Craft

65/100

Hype

20/100

324 sources · methodology

Thin on the right so far

Only 44 of the 256 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

This story is still being watched, so it is a count and not yet a finding. Coverage keeps arriving for hours after an event, and a side that has published nothing this morning may publish by tonight. If it is still true when we stop checking, we will say so plainly.

A federal judge has dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch. The case, filed in Miami, concerned a story published by the Journal that reported on Trump's ties to financier Jeffrey Epstein and a sexually suggestive birthday letter. Trump had denied writing the letter and called the story "false, malicious, and defamatory."

Disagreement on the letter's content

The Wall Street Journal reported the letter bore Trump's name and was included in a 2003 album for Epstein's 50th birthday. According to the newspaper, the letter included text framed by an outline of a naked woman and ended with "Happy Birthday - and may every day be another wonderful secret." Trump denied writing the letter. None of the provided digests offer an alternative description of the letter's content or directly quote Trump's denial beyond calling the story "false, malicious, and defamatory."

What the coverage left out

None of the left-rated digests mention the specific dollar amount of the lawsuit Trump filed. None of the centre-rated digests mention the specific dollar amount of the lawsuit Trump filed. None of the right-rated digests mention the specific dollar amount of the lawsuit Trump filed.

Tags:#DonaldTrump#Lawsuit#JeffreyEpstein#WallStreetJournal#Defamation

Still developing. We have re-checked which outlets are covering this 13 times, most recently on 2 Nov 2026, 09:00, and will add the sides that appear.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

79 rated outlets

  • All twelve left‑rated outlets ran a story about the dismissal. Ten provided digests that said a federal judge threw out President Donald Trump’s multibillion‑dollar defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch, ruling he had not shown actual malice. The dismissal was reported as permanent.
  • CBC News’ full article identified U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles in Miami as the author of the order, described the case as “grasping at straws,” and noted the lawsuit alleged false, defamatory statements about a 2003 birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein that Trump denied writing.
  • Al Jazeera’s full report did not mention the Trump lawsuit; instead it covered Senator Dan S. Sullivan’s pledge to accept Alaska’s election results and a separate DOJ suit to decertify that race. No details of the Wall Street Journal case appear in that article.
  • The digests omitted any quotations from the judge or parties, and did not provide the letter’s exact wording or the financial‑harm figures claimed by Trump. No left‑rated outlet in the sample reported on the cost estimate or on any potential appeal.

Centre

133 rated outlets

  • Ten centre-rated reports focused on the dismissal of Donald Trump's lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch. They highlighted that the case was dismissed "with prejudice," preventing refiling. The reports specified the lawsuit concerned a story about Trump's connections to Jeffrey Epstein and a birthday letter. They stated U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled that Trump failed to demonstrate "actual malice" by the defendants. Digests from CNN Business, which were used by KIFI, KRDO, KVIA, and Washington Top News, noted the judge's ruling that Trump "failed" to prove his case. The full report from Hindustan Times mentioned the letter was collected by Ghislaine Maxwell and included the phrase "Happy Birthday, and may every day be another wonderful secret," and that Trump denied writing it.

Right

44 rated outlets

  • All twelve right‑rated digests reported that a federal judge dismissed Donald Trump’s defamation suit against The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch over a 2003 letter to Jeffrey Epstein. The dismissals were described as final and without merit.
  • Berlingske.dk, BT, La Tercera and La Nación noted that Trump sought $10 billion in damages. The Gateway Pundit, Clarin and El Mundo characterised the claim as a defamation or slander action. La Tercera added that the judge found no real malice, while Clarin said the media acted in good faith. West Australian and Globo named Rupert Murdoch as a defendant.
  • None of the right‑rated digests mention any estimate of the lawsuit’s legal costs or the broader implications for press freedom. They also omit commentary on the judge’s detailed reasoning beyond the brief statements about good faith or lack of real malice.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Wall Street Journal?
Of the 256 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 31% are rated left, 52% are rated centre, 17% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 324. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Wall Street Journal left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 256 rated outlets on this story, 31% are rated left, 52% are rated centre, 17% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Wall Street Journal biased?
Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Wall Street Journal is one event reported by 324 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Wall Street Journal?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Wall Street Journal?
324 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Why was Donald Trump's lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal dismissed?
A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit because Donald Trump did not prove that The Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch made defamatory statements with actual malice. The judge ruled the case was "grasping at straws" and could not be refiled.
What was Donald Trump's lawsuit about?
The lawsuit concerned a story published by The Wall Street Journal reporting on Donald Trump's ties to Jeffrey Epstein and a sexually suggestive birthday letter that the newspaper said bore Trump's name. Trump denied writing the letter.
What does 'dismissed with prejudice' mean?
When a case is dismissed 'with prejudice,' it means the lawsuit cannot be refiled in any court. This is a permanent and final ruling on the matter.

Read it at the source

529 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

144
Show 136 more

Centre

199
Show 191 more

Right

75
Show 67 more

Not rated

111
Show 103 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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