By MEG KINNARD and JOSH BOAK<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A federal judge dismissed President Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0$10 billion defamation lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0against the Wall Street Journal and\u00a0Rupert Murdoch<\/a>\u00a0on Monday over a story on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles in Florida wrote in the order that Trump had failed to make the argument that the article was published with the intent to be malicious, but gave the president a chance to file an amended complaint.<\/p>\n Trump filed the lawsuit in July, following up on a promise to sue the paper almost immediately after it put a new spotlight on his well-documented relationship with Epstein by publishing an article that described a sexually suggestive letter that the newspaper said bore Trump\u2019s signature and was included in a 2003 album compiled for Epstein\u2019s 50th birthday.<\/p>\n The letter\u00a0was subsequently released publicly by Congress<\/a>, which subpoenaed the records from Epstein\u2019s estate. Trump denied writing it, calling the story \u201cfalse, malicious, and defamatory.\u201d<\/p>\n Attorneys for the newspaper and Murdoch had asked Gayles to rule that the article\u2019s statements were true and therefore couldn\u2019t be defamatory, but the judge wrote that \u201cwhether President Trump was the author of the Letter or Epstein\u2019s friend are questions of fact that cannot be determined at this stage of the litigation,\u201d Gayles wrote.<\/p>\n The ruling marks yet another blow in the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to manage fallout over its release of the\u00a0Epstein files<\/a>\u00a0and the president\u2019s attempts to use the legal system to chill reporting he finds critical of him.<\/p>\n Neither the White House nor a spokesperson for Dow Jones, which publishes the Journal, immediately responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n