Donald Trump has refiled a defamation lawsuit seeking at least $10bn in damages against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his alleged ties to Jeffrey Epstein, after a judge threw out an earlier version over legal deficiencies.
The lawsuit is one of several the US president has brought in his personal capacity against news organisations and is part of what critics say is a wider pressure campaign against the media.
Trump’s lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, claimed the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper tarnished his reputation with an article describing a birthday card to the disgraced financier and sex offender Epstein as bearing Trump’s signature. Trump and his lawyers said the card was fake, even after it was released by lawmakers investigating Epstein’s case.
Trump is seeking at least $10bn 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.
Dow Jones has said it has full confidence in the rigour and accuracy of the WSJ’s reporting and will vigorously defend the lawsuit.
Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019. His case generated conspiracy theories that became popular among Trump’s base of supporters, who believed the government was covering up Epstein’s ties to the rich and powerful. Trump has said he parted ways with Epstein before the financier’s legal troubles became public in 2006.
The US district court judge Darrin P Gayles, an appointee of the former president Barack Obama, threw out Trump’s first complaint in April. The judge found Trump had not met the “actual malice” legal standard for public figures in defamation cases, which requires evidence that a defendant published a statement that they knew or should have known was false.
Trump has also filed defamation and other lawsuits against other media organisations, including the New York Times, the BBC and Iowa’s Des Moines Register. Those outlets have denied wrongdoing and are fighting the cases in court.
The Trump administration has acted to restrict press access to government agencies and threatened to use regulatory powers against critical outlets, drawing legal challenges by media organisations.
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