President Donald Trump has been dealt an early blow in his libel lawsuit against media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal.
The case was assigned to a federal judge appointed by former President Barack Obama.
Judge Darrin Gayles was elevated to the bench under the Obama administration in 2014, becoming the first openly gay, African-American man to serve as a top-level judge.
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He will now oversee the $10 billion lawsuit filed by the president on Friday over the newspaper’s report of a birthday letter he allegedly sent to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump has vehemently denied writing the letter, which was sent in 2003 and features a drawing of a naked woman with his name mimicking pubic hair.
“We have certain things in common, Jeffrey,” Trump is alleged to have written on the gift. “Enigmas never age, have you noticed that? … Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
The article infuriated the president, whose lawsuit insists the letter is completely fabricated, paving the way for the Journal to prove otherwise.
“On the one hand, Defendants Safdar and Palazzolo (who wrote the report) falsely pass off as fact that President Trump, in 2003, wrote, drew, and signed this letter,” Trump’s lawyers argue in the lawsuit.
“And on the other hand, Defendants Safdar and Palazzolo failed to attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained.”
“The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists,” the filing further states.
The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where Gayles is based. It names Murdoch, his News Corp empire, Dow Jones Company (which is owned by News Corp), the Journal, and the journalists who wrote the article as defendants.
A spokesman for Dow Jones fired back, vowing to fight the case and saying in a statement: “We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting.”
The controversy over the Epstein files has nonetheless fractured Trump’s MAGA base, with some of the president’s most vocal supporters slamming the White House for the way it has handled the case and questioning why Trump would not want the documents made public.
Trump, who had come to office promising transparency over the Epstein files, has since tried to brand the issue as a Democratic hoax, and has become so frustrated that he accused “past” supporters of buying into the “bulls--t.”
His lawsuit against Murdoch is the latest legal action he has taken against a media outlet.
This month, Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to settle a legal dispute regarding an interview it broadcast on CBS with former Vice President Kamala Harris.
He has also sued ABC News, which agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.
“I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ‘pile of garbage’ newspaper,” Trump wrote last week. “That will be an interesting experience!!!”
