Trump files revised defamation lawsuit against WSJ publisher

President Trump on Wednesday filed a revised lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, after a judge dismissed an earlier complaint that alleged he was defamed by an article about a birthday letter to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles, based in Miami, had given Trump until May 27 to file a new complaint. The judge dismissed Trump’s original lawsuit after finding it didn’t sufficiently allege “actual malice,” a legal standard that requires proof that defendants published a story with knowledge it was false or with reckless disregard for the truth.

The new complaint alleges that the defendants acted with such malice in several aspects, citing Trump’s repeated denial of any involvement with the letter. Like the previous version, it is seeking billions of dollars in damages.

The Journal reported in July that a book given to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003 included a letter bearing Trump’s name. The letter had typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman. “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the letter said. It was signed, “Donald.” Members of the House Oversight Committee later received a copy of the birthday book, provided by lawyers from Epstein’s estate, containing the letter.

The article included comments from Trump, who denied writing the letter and threatened legal action. Trump then sued Journal publisher Dow Jones; its parent company News Corp; News Corp CEO Robert Thomson and Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch; and two Journal reporters in federal court.

The defendants asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the article was true, and even if the Journal had directly stated that Trump wrote the letter—which it didn’t—there was nothing defamatory about a person writing a bawdy note to a friend. Lawyers also argued that Trump hadn’t sufficiently alleged that any defendants knowingly published false statements.

After Gayles, an Obama appointee, dismissed the lawsuit, Trump wrote on social media that he would refile his “powerful case” by the court’s deadline. “It is not a termination, it is a suggested re-filing,” he said.

His lawyers subsequently asked the judge for permission to gather some evidence from the Journal defendants. Trump’s lawyers argued that limited evidence could help show the defendants’ state of mind and give the president a chance to meet the high legal bar for establishing actual malice. Gayles denied that request.

Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida state court to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008, and Trump has said he cut off ties with Epstein long before Epstein was first arrested in 2006. Federal prosecutors in 2019 charged Epstein with sex-trafficking underage girls in Florida and New York, and he died in a Manhattan federal jail while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide.

Write to Corinne Ramey at corinne.ramey@wsj.com