JUST IN: Judge Rejects Trump’s Defamation Complaint Against WSJ, Rupert Murdoch Over Jeffrey Epstein Drawing

(Luis M. Alvarez/AP photo)

A federal judge in Florida dismissed President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal on Monday in a legal blow to the president’s attempt to challenge reporting on an alleged birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein two decades ago.

The lawsuit, filed last summer, targeted media mogul and WSJ owner Rupert Murdoch alongside the paper’s publishers and journalists, after the newspaper reported on a document said to be signed by Trump that included a sexually suggestive drawing of a woman and a message reading: “Happy Birthday, may every day be another wonderful secret.”

The letter was first reported by The Journal last July before later being shared with members of Congress by the Epstein estate.

According to The Journal’s reporting the drawing was part of a 50th birthday album for Epstein compiled in 2003 by his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking.

Trump has consistently denied any connection to the document, rejecting claims that he authored the letter or that the signature is his, and slammed the report before taking legal action.

Last year, for the bombshell article, Trump told the newspaper: “This is not me. This is a fake thing. It’s a fake Wall Street Journal story. I never wrote a picture in my life. I don’t draw pictures of women. It’s not my language. It’s not my words.”

On Monday, however, Judge Darrin Gayles said in his ruling that “not plausibly alleged that the Defendants published the Article with actual malice.” Dismissing the case “without prejudice” leaves the option for Trump to refile.

Responding to the ruling, the president’s team said: “President Trump will follow Judge Gayles’s ruling and guidance to refile this powerhouse lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all of the other Defendants. The President will continue to hold accountable those who traffic in Fake News to mislead the American People.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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