Trump refiles $10 billion lawsuit over Wall Street Journal report on Epstein birthday letter
By Kaanita Iyer, CNN
(CNN) — President Donald Trump has refiled his lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal’s publisher and two of its reporters over a July 2025 report on a lewd birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name.
Tuesday’s defamation lawsuit seeks $10 billion for damages and claims that the story had “glaring failures in journalistic ethics and standards of accurate reporting.”
“President Trump has refiled his powerhouse lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and all of the other Defendants. The President will continue to hold those who mislead the American People with Fake News and smears accountable for their actions,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team told CNN.
CNN has reached out to the Wall Street Journal for comment.
The president’s earlier lawsuit was dismissed last month, with a federal judge ruling that Trump failed to plausibly allege the newspaper acted with “actual malice” when it reported the story.
Since returning to office, Trump has gone after media companies through legal pressure and public threats. When the president first filed the lawsuit last summer, legal experts consulted by CNN said they could not recall any past instances of a sitting president suing a news outlet over a story.
He has since filed lawsuits against other outlets including a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times in September, that accuses the outlet of being a “virtual mouthpiece” for the Democratic Party.
In December, Trump sued the BBC for $10 billion, alleging that it defamed him by splicing together two different parts of his January 6, 2021, speech.
The Wall Street Journal story published in July 2025 was about a collection of letters gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. One of the letters, the Wall Street Journal reported, bore Trump’s name and an outline of a naked woman.
Trump has denied writing the letter. In Tuesday’s filing, his legal team said the reporters “falsely pass off as fact that President Trump, in 2003, wrote, drew, and signed this letter” but “failed to show proof.”
A spokesperson for Dow Jones, the Journal’s parent company said in a statement when the first lawsuit was filed, “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.”
Trump has previously been under scrutiny for his ties to Epstein, with the administration facing continued backlash for how it handled the release of the Justice Department’s files related to the late sex offender.
The-CNN-Wire
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CNN’s Brian Stelter, Paula Reid, Michael Williams, Dan Berman, Adam Cancryn and Andrew Kirell contributed to this report.
