WSJ victory over Trump means his BBC lawsuit likely to fail
Donald Trump’s alleged birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein The Wall Street Journal’s legal victory over President Trump upholds the long-standing principle that US defamation claimants must prove actual malice. It raises the likelihood that a $10bn lawsuit filed against the BBC by the US president will also fail. Under the US First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech, defamation claims have traditionally been much harder to pursue in America than the UK. But Trump has sought to upend this precedent with a flurry of claims against the media. He sued The Wall Street Journal for $10bn over a 17 January 2025 article, which reported claims Trump sent a bawdy birthday card to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Now a Florida district court has thrown out Trump’s claim in a resounding victory for the Rupert Murdoch-owned publisher. Trump is separately suing the BBC over misleading editing in a documentary about the president. Unless he can also prove malice in this case, it will also be thrown out. Trump’s request for legal fees against the Journal was also …









