From Dispatch Room
U.S. President Donald Trump has refiled a defamation lawsuit seeking at least $10 billion in damages against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on his alleged ties to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The amended lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Miami after an earlier version of the case was dismissed by a judge over legal deficiencies.
Trump’s lawyers accused the newspaper, its parent companies and senior executives of damaging the president’s reputation through an article that reported on a birthday card allegedly bearing Trump’s signature and linked to Epstein.
Trump and his legal team have denied the authenticity of the card, describing it as fake, even after it was reportedly released by lawmakers investigating Epstein-related materials.
The lawsuit names Rupert Murdoch, Dow Jones, News Corp, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson and two Wall Street Journal reporters as defendants.
In the amended complaint, Trump’s lawyers alleged that the defendants acted with reckless disregard for the truth and caused the president severe financial and reputational harm.
Dow Jones has previously said it stands by the Wall Street Journal’s reporting and intends to defend the case vigorously.
The case is one of several lawsuits Trump has filed against media organizations, including actions involving the New York Times, the BBC and the Des Moines Register.
The earlier complaint was dismissed in April after U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles ruled that Trump had not sufficiently met the “actual malice” standard required in defamation cases involving public figures.
Under U.S. defamation law, public officials and public figures must show that a false statement was published knowingly or with reckless disregard for whether it was false.
Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Trump has previously said he cut ties with Epstein before the financier’s legal troubles became public in 2006.
The new filing is expected to intensify debate over Trump’s legal battles with major media outlets and broader tensions between the White House and the press.
— Newspot Nigeria
