* Trump sued newspaper over article about Epstein

birthday letter

* Democrats in Congress later released copy of greeting

* U.S. President plans to re-file lawsuit, spokesman says

(Adds detail from ruling in paragraph 10; adds context in

paragraphs 11-15, 20-22)

By Luc Cohen and Jack Queen

April 13 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday dismissed

Donald Trump's defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street

Journal, a setback for the U.S. president in his legal campaign

against media companies he accuses of treating him unfairly.

The case was one of several that Trump, a Republican, has filed

during his presidency against major media outlets over reporting

he has characterized as unfair or false. That has led to concern

among Democrats and press freedom advocates that he is seeking

to use defamation cases to quell critical coverage.

Trump's lawsuit said the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper

tarnished his reputation with an article describing a birthday

card to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump's

signature. Trump and his lawyers said the card is fake, even

after it was released by lawmakers investigating Epstein's

case.

Trump filed the lawsuit in July 2025 as his administration faced

criticism from its conservative base and congressional Democrats

over its handling of the case against Epstein, a financier who

died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 after being arrested on

child sex trafficking charges.

Miami-based U.S. District Court Judge Darrin P. Gayles, an

appointee of former President Barack Obama, said in tossing the

case that Trump had not come close to meeting the "actual

malice" standard that public figures must clear in defamation.

That means they must prove not only that a public statement

about them was false but also that the media outlet or person

who made the statement knew or should have known that it was

false.

"This complaint comes nowhere close to this standard,"

Gayles wrote. "Quite the opposite."

Gayles said Trump could file an amended version of the

lawsuit by April 27.

A spokesman for Trump's legal team said he would refile the

lawsuit.

Neither News Corp ( NWSA ) nor Dow Jones responded to requests for

comment.

DEMOCRATS RELEASED COPY OF LETTER

Gayles wrote that the Journal's reporters reached out to Trump

for comment beforehand, and printed his denial. That allowed

readers to decide for themselves what to conclude, cutting

against Trump's assertion that the newspaper acted with actual

malice, the judge said.

The ruling did not address whether the article was true.

The Epstein case generated conspiracy theories that the

government covered up the financier's ties to the rich and

powerful and obscured details about his death, which was ruled a

suicide.

Trump amplified such conspiracy theories about Epstein during

the 2024 presidential campaign and vowed to open the

government's investigative files if he won. He reneged on that

promise but has called the ensuing scandal a Democratic hoax.

Trump and Epstein were once friends, but Trump says he severed

ties before Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution charges in

2008. Trump has consistently denied knowing about Epstein's

crimes.

His lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal came in response to

an article asserting that Trump's signature was on a 2003

birthday card for Epstein that included a drawing of a naked

woman and a reference to shared secrets in an imaginary dialogue

between Trump and Epstein.

Trump's lawsuit repeatedly asserts the card is fake and takes

the Journal to task for not publishing it as proof, but a copy

was later released by Democrats in Congress who obtained it from

Epstein's estate.

WSJ WARNS OF CHILLING EFFECT ON SPEECH

In seeking to dismiss the case, the Wall Street Journal said the

lawsuit was meritless and threatened to chill the speech of

those who would dare to publish content the president does not

like.

Trump has also sued the BBC, citing misleading editing of a

speech, the New York Times over articles and a book about him,

and a newspaper in Iowa over a poll that showed him trailing

Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential campaign.

All three outlets have denied wrongdoing.

ABC settled with Trump after he sued over an anchor's inaccurate

comments about a civil case accusing him of sexual abuse. CBS

struck a similar deal after Trump sued over its edits to an

interview with Harris.