Washington — A federal judge in Miami handed President Trump a setback in his defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal over a story about a birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein, saying the president’s legal team failed to clear the legal bar needed to establish their claim.

In a 17-page ruling, Judge Darrin Gayles of the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Florida ruled that the president came “nowhere close” to showing the paper acted with “actual malice” towards him, the standard for bringing a defamation suit as a public figure. 

Actual malice requires that plaintiffs prove that statements made about a public figure were published with the knowledge that they were false, or with disregard for whether they are true or not.

“Because President Trump has not plausibly alleged that Defendants published the Article with actual malice, both Counts must be dismissed,” Gayles wrote. 

However, the judge said Mr. Trump can refile the case by April 27 to amend the complaint and allege the paper acted with actual malice.

Gayles added that Mr. Trump’s “conclusory allegation” in the complaint — that the Journal “had contradictory evidence and failed to investigate” — is “rebutted by the Article and is insufficient to establish actual malice.”

A spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team said the president “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,” the spokesman said.

CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment on the ruling.

The Journal reported in July 2025 that a book with letters from Epstein’s friends prepared for his 50th birthday in 2003 included a “bawdy” message inside the outline of a nude woman with Mr. Trump’s signature underneath. The president dismissed the story as “FAKE” and filed a $20 billion lawsuit against the paper, its parent company News Corp, the company’s CEO, the reporters who wrote the story and Rupert Murdoch, News Corp’s chairman emeritus.

House lawmakers later subpoenaed and obtained a redacted version of the birthday book from Epstein’s estate, which included the letter at the center of Mr. Trump’s lawsuit. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the time that “it’s very clear President Trump did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.”

In his ruling on Monday, the judge declined to “make a factual finding, at this time, that the documents produced by the Epstein Estate are the same documents referenced in the Article.”