Latest / Beyond The Horizon / Donald Trump's WSJ Lawsuit Is Dismissed With Prejudice (Part 1) (11/2/26)

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Donald Trump's WSJ Lawsuit Is Dismissed With Prejudice (Part 1) (11/2/26) · Beyond The Horizon

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  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to take a
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  Speaker 1: look at the order by the judge who dismissed Donald
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  Speaker 1: Trump's lawsuit filed against the Wall Street Journal. Case number 125-CV-23232-DPG.
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  Speaker 1: President Donald Trump, plaintiff, versus Dow Jones & Company, Inc., DBA,
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  Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal, News Corporation, Keith Rupert Murdoch, Robert Thompson,
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  Speaker 1: Khadija Safdar, and Joseph Palazzolo. Order Those who won our
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  Speaker 1: independence believed that public discussion is a political duty and
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  Speaker 1: that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.
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  Speaker 1: They recognized the risk to which all human institutions are subject,
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  Speaker 1: but they knew that order cannot be secured and merely
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  Speaker 1: through fear of punishment for its infraction, that it is
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  Speaker 1: hazardous to discourage thought, hope, and imagination, that fear breeds repression,
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  Speaker 1: that repression breeds hate, that hate menaces stable government, that
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  Speaker 1: the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss
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  Speaker 1: freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies, and that the fitting
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  Speaker 1: remedy for evil counsels is good one. Believing in the
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  Speaker 1: power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence,
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  Speaker 1: coerced by law, the argument of force in its worst form.
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  Speaker 1: Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of the governing majorities, they amended
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  Speaker 1: the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.
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  Speaker 1: Justice Brandis' words, as relevant today as they were nearly
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  Speaker 1: a century ago, form the background behind the Supreme Court's
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  Speaker 1: holding in Sullivan. The First Amendment prohibits a public figure
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  Speaker 1: from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood unless he proves
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  Speaker 1: that the statement was made with actual malice. This constitutional
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  Speaker 1: protection is not limited to post-discovery motions in trial because
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  Speaker 1: the costs and efforts required to defend a lawsuit through
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  Speaker 1: discovery could chill free speech nearly as effectively as the
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  Speaker 1: absence of the actual malice standard together. A public figure
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  Speaker 1: plaintiff must plausibly allege actual malice at the outset of
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  Speaker 1: the litigation. The order addresses President Donald J. Trump's second
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  Speaker 1: attempt to plead that defendants Dow Jones and Company and
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  Speaker 1: journalists Khadija Safdar and Joseph Palazzolo, collectively the defendants, acted
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  Speaker 1: with actual malice when they published an article in the
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  Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal linking him to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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  Speaker 1: As with his first attempt, he has failed. Therefore, for
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  Speaker 1: the reasons below, defendant's motion to dismiss the first amended
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  Speaker 1: complaint is granted and President Trump's amended complaint is dismissed
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  Speaker 1: with prejudice. Background A. The Article On July 15, 2025,
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  Speaker 1: Palazzolo emailed then White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt, advising
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  Speaker 1: her that Dow Jones intended to publish an article about
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  Speaker 1: a birthday letter that President Trump purportedly created for Epstein.
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  Speaker 1: President Trump and his team responded quickly. Levitt called Palazzolo
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  Speaker 1: and told him that the subject matter of the proposed
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  Speaker 1: article was false. President Trump, through counsel, denied writing the
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  Speaker 1: letter and warned Dow Jones not to publish the story.
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  Speaker 1: And President Trump directly told Murdoch that he had not
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  Speaker 1: signed or sent the letter. When Murdoch responded that he
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  Speaker 1: would handle it, President Trump, through the WSJ, would not
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  Speaker 1: print the article. Two days later, the WSJ online edition
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  Speaker 1: published the article. The title of the article, Jeffrey Epstein's Friends,
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  Speaker 1: sent him bawdy letters for a 50th birthday album, one
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  Speaker 1: was from Donald Trump, is in bold print, with a
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  Speaker 1: subtitle below reading the leather-bound book was compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell.
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  Speaker 1: The president says the letter is a fake thing. Leading
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  Speaker 1: with a picture of President Trump with Epstein, the article
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  Speaker 1: states the following in pertinent part. It was Jeffrey Epstein's
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  Speaker 1: 50th birthday, and Glenn Maxwell was preparing a special gift
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  Speaker 1: to mark the occasion. She turned to Epstein's family and friends,
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  Speaker 1: one of them was Donald Trump. Maxwell collected letters from
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  Speaker 1: Trump and dozens of Epstein's other associates for a 2003
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  Speaker 1: birthday album according to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.
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  Speaker 1: Pages from the leather-bound album, assembled before Epstein was first
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  Speaker 1: arrested in 2006, are among the documents examined by Justice
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  Speaker 1: Department officials who have investigated Epstein and Maxwell years ago,
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  Speaker 1: according to people who have reviewed the pages. It's unclear
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  Speaker 1: if any of the pages are part of the Trump
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  Speaker 1: administration's recent review. The letter bearing Trump's name, which was
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  Speaker 1: reviewed by the journal, is bawdy like others in the album.
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  Speaker 1: It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the
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  Speaker 1: outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn
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  Speaker 1: with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes
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  Speaker 1: the woman's breasts, and the future president's signature is a
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  Speaker 1: squiggly Donald below her waist. Mimicking pubic hair. The letter
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  Speaker 1: concludes happy birthday, and may every day be another wonderful secret.
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  Speaker 1: In an interview with the Journal on Tuesday evening, Trump
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  Speaker 1: denied writing the letter or drawing the picture. This is
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  Speaker 1: not me. This is a fake thing. It's a fake
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  Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal story, he said. I never wrote a
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  Speaker 1: picture in my life. I don't draw pictures of women,
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  Speaker 1: he said. It's not my language. It's not my words.
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  Speaker 1: He told the journal he was preparing to file a lawsuit.
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  Speaker 1: If it published the article, I'm going to sue the
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  Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else, he said.
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  Speaker 1: Justice Department officials didn't respond to requests for comment or
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  Speaker 1: address questions about whether the Trump page and other pages
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  Speaker 1: of the birthday album were a part of the agency's
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  Speaker 1: recent documents review. The FBI declined to comment. Among those
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  Speaker 1: who submitted letters were billionaire Leslie Wexner and attorney Alan Dershowitz.
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  Speaker 1: Wexner declined to comment through a spokesman. Dershowitz, who represented
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  Speaker 1: Epstein after his first arrest, said, It's been a long time,
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  Speaker 1: and I don't recall all the content of what I
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  Speaker 1: may have written. The book was put together by a
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  Speaker 1: New York City bookbinder, Herbert Weitz. According to people who
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  Speaker 1: were involved in the process, Weitz, who died in 2020,
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  Speaker 1: listed Epstein as a client on his website in 2003.
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  Speaker 1: It isn't clear how the letter with Trump's signature was prepared.
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  Speaker 1: Inside the outline of the naked woman was a typewritten note,
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  Speaker 1: styled as an imaginary conversation between Trump and Epstein, written
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  Speaker 1: in the third person. Description of the conversation. When he
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  Speaker 1: turned 50, Epstein was already wealthy from managing Wexner's fortune
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  Speaker 1: and socializing with Trump, Clinton, and other powerful people. He
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  Speaker 1: often entertained at his Manhattan townhouse, Palm Beach, Florida home,
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  Speaker 1: and private Caribbean island. Epstein and Trump spent time together
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  Speaker 1: in the 90s and early 2000s and were photographed at
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  Speaker 1: social events, including with Maxwell and Melania Trump. Trump, along
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  Speaker 1: with others, including Clinton, also appeared several times on flight
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  Speaker 1: logs for Epstein's private jet. A 2002 New York Magazine
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  Speaker 1: profile of Epstein quoted Trump, I've known Jeff for 15 years.
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  Speaker 1: Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with.
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  Speaker 1: It's even said that he likes beautiful women as much
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  Speaker 1: as I do, and many of them are on the
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  Speaker 1: younger side. No doubt about it, Jeffrey enjoys his social life.
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  Speaker 1: Both men said that they subsequently had a falling out.
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  Speaker 1: Trump has said that their friendship ended before Epstein pleaded
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  Speaker 1: guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008, served
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  Speaker 1: time in Florida jail, and registered as a sex offender. Maxwell,
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  Speaker 1: a British socialite, was convicted in 2021. of helping Epstein
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  Speaker 1: sex trafficking and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Maxwell
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  Speaker 1: didn't respond to a letter requesting an interview sent to
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  Speaker 1: her in prison. Arthur Idella, an attorney who represented Maxwell, said,
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  Speaker 1: at this point, she's focused on her case before the
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  Speaker 1: Supreme Court of the United States. Epstein's associations with Trump
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  Speaker 1: and many powerful people have been well documented. B. The
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  Speaker 1: Original Complaint On July 18, 2025, President Trump filed this
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  Speaker 1: action against defendants, alleging that the letter is fake and
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  Speaker 1: that defendants concocted the story to defame him. The original
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  Speaker 1: complaint set forth claims for defamation per se. The Maxwell
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  Speaker 1: Interview On July 24, 2025, the United States Department of
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  Speaker 1: Justice interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell. During her interview, Maxwell stated, Subject
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  Speaker 1: to penalty of perjury for lying to a federal officer.
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  Speaker 1: that she did not remember President Trump submitting a letter
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  Speaker 1: for Epstein's 50th birthday. D. The House Subpoena and Records
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  Speaker 1: Release On August 25, 2025, after President Trump filed this action,
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  Speaker 1: the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the United
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  Speaker 1: States House of Representatives, the committee subpoenaed the Epstein estate
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  Speaker 1: for documents, the subpoena. The subpoena included a request to
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  Speaker 1: produce all letters in the birthday book, The Epstein estate
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  Speaker 1: complied with the subpoena, and on September 8, 2025, the
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  Speaker 1: committee released the produced documents on its official webpage via
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  Speaker 1: a press release. The production included a copy of the
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  Speaker 1: birthday book. The birthday book includes a page matching the
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  Speaker 1: article's description of the letter. E. the second article. On
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  Speaker 1: September 8, 2025, the Wall Street Journal published an article titled,
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  Speaker 1: A Visual Breakdown of the Trump Birthday Letter to Epstein,
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  Speaker 1: which compares the signature and typeface, drawing style, third-person point
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  Speaker 1: of view, and diction in the letter with prior communications
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  Speaker 1: by President Trump. The September 8th article. The September 8th
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  Speaker 1: article includes President Trump's denial that he wrote the letter
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  Speaker 1: or drew the picture and Levitt's statement in a social
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  Speaker 1: media post that President Trump did not draw the picture
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  Speaker 1: or sign the letter. F. Dismissal of the Complaint. Defendants
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  Speaker 1: moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a
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  Speaker 1: claim and asked the court to take judicial notice of
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  Speaker 1: 11 documents, including the subpoena, press release, birthday book, produced letter,
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  Speaker 1: articles about President Trump, and campaign statements by President Trump.
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  Speaker 1: The court granted in part and denied in part defendants'
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  Speaker 1: motion to dismiss the complaint, finding President Trump failed to
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  Speaker 1: plausibly allege that defendants published an article with actual malice
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  Speaker 1: and failed to allege special damages for his defamation claim.
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  Speaker 1: President Trump then sought leave to conduct limited discovery as
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  Speaker 1: to actual malice before amending his complaint. The court Denied
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  Speaker 1: his request. All right, we're going to wrap up with
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  Speaker 1: part one right here. And in the next episode dealing
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  Speaker 1: with the topic, we're going to pick up with part
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  Speaker 1: number two. All the information that goes with this episode
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  Speaker 1: can be found in the description box.