DHS Is Stepping Up Its Intimidation Campaign Against a Federal Judge

“Thus, allowing President Trump to conduct discovery on actual malice, where his initial attempt at pleading a defamation claim fell short, is exactly the type of ‘expensive yet groundless litigation’ the Eleventh Circuit has cautioned against,” Gayles wrote in his ruling.

Trump sued the Journal in July 2025, claiming that the newspaper’s reporting that Trump submitted a letter and explicit drawing to a birthday album for Jeffrey Epstein was defamatory, denying the report’s accuracy. In April, Gayles dismissed the lawsuit, saying that Trump didn’t make a plausible allegation that the newspaper acted with “actual malice,” but allowed Trump the ability to file an amended complaint, which he did.

But now, Trump can’t use the discovery process to gather evidence that the Journal defamed him, although Gayles did leave the door open for him to file another amended complaint. It doesn’t seem likely that he’d succeed a third time, as the House Oversight Committee included the birthday book, complete with the drawing from Trump, in a September release of Epstein materials from his estate in September.