A federal judge in Florida has dismissed Trump Media’s $3.8 billion defamation lawsuit against The Washington Post. The lawsuit was filed over a 2023 story titled “Trust linked to porn-friendly bank could gain a stake in Trump’s Truth Social.”

Details of the Case

The judge ruled that Trump Media failed to present evidence that would allow a jury to find by clear and convincing evidence that The Post published the allegedly defamatory statements with actual malice. The Post’s lawyers argued that Trump Media could not prove “actual malice,” the high legal standard that public figures must meet to prevail in a defamation case.

The Post’s reporter who wrote the story in question, Drew Harwell, “thoroughly investigated” the subject and “had confidence in the article’s accuracy at the time of publication,” the newspaper’s lawyers wrote. Trump Media has repeatedly filed lawsuits over news coverage it deemed false, including a defamation lawsuit against The Guardian and other defendants that was thrown out by a different Florida judge last November.

Original reporting: El Paso News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.