'Groundless': Trump’s WSJ suit hits major snag as judge slaps down legal team’s move

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One on his return from a state visit in Britain, September 18, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

For nearly a year, President Donald Trump has been engaged in a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal, claiming the news outlet had knowingly published “false and defamatory” information about his links to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Now, reports the New Republic, his case has hit a major snag, as a judge declared he can’t use the legal process known as “discovery” to search for evidence of his claims.

This decision comes via U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles, who on Wednesday declared, “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.”

In other words, the judge determined that it would be “improper” to allow the Trump legal team to look for justification of their allegations after the fact. It’s a cart-before-horse situation. The Trump lawsuit asserted a crime before finding evidence to prove it, and then he wanted to use the court’s time and resources to do so. The judge wasn’t having it.

Gayles has, in fact, previously dismissed the case on similar grounds, deciding that Trump hadn’t presented a plausible case that the newspaper acted with “actual malice.” But he did afford Trump the option of refiling an amended complaint, and the president did so.

“But now,” explained the New Republic, “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.”

This is in reference to the infamous birthday card Trump allegedly drew for Epstein, which is the focus of the lawsuit. While Gayles has never revealed whether he believes the card to be genuine, his order in April did assert that Trump’s accusations were "conclusory and without factual support."

As of earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal is facing yet another legal challenge from the president, as the Justice Department has subpoenaed a number of its reporters over leaks from the Department of Defense related to the Iran war. The paper’s publisher, Dow Jones, says the actions “represent an attack on constitutionally protected news gathering.”

From Your Site Articles